Postmodernist allegory : the works of Thomas Pynchon

transcript

POSTilODEBNIST ALLEGORY :

the Wor.ks of Thomas PYnchon

Daborah L. Jones B.A, (nons).

Submitted as a thesiE for the degree of ll.A Ln the Eepartment of

f.ít:'rr¡rlc I /1-g - .T ¡-

CONTENTS

Chaoter

4, The Numinous, the Nor.¡mBnon and the Text in'

Gravitv's Rainbow.

Aga Conclusfon: Gonstructlons and Cryptomorphs.

Bibllography

1. An Abstract Account of Allegory.

2. vaclllatlng Ln the vofd? verbal vlvlflcatÍon in v. 47.

3. The T¡pologY of the Trl'stero. ll_2.

SYNOPSIS

The argument of this thesls is grounded on a number of historicLst

assumptions whtch are lmp1l-clt in the tlt1e. I assu¡rne firstly that

allegory ls not, as 1s generally accepted¡ a literary style, but in fact

a genre, distlngulshed by a genre-specific plot structure. This struc-

ture would therefore cut across the discrete perlods of Ìiterary hlstory.

But secondly f assume that the pressure exerted by changlng cultural

attitudes towards art, realÍty and the epistemological nelatlonship

between the two has produced a serles of hlstorical modlficatlons in

thls diachronlc structure corresponding to the periods of lÍterary hlst-

or-)rr 'rPostmodernism,, is one such perfod and "postmodernist aL1egory" one

such generic modlfícatfon, of which Pynchon's narratives provÍde signif-

lcant examples.

The flrst chapter elaborates these assumptions, beglnning with a

consÍderation of lLterary genres as opposed to styles or modes and of

aLlegoresis as an interpretatlve method that has generated some confu-

sion about the precfse nature of literary alIegory. The flgural theory

of slgns provi-des the context wlthln which the thematic structures that

determLne the generfc plot structure of allegory are dÍscussed. Fig-

uralÍsm !s explored 1n terms of the nature of the a}Ìegoric hero and of

his quest¡ the narrative's attLtude towards its Language and íts capa-

city to produce a revelatf.on of the sacred Other (aÌlos) through the

interpretatlon of a prlvileged, anterlor sacred book: the "pretextr'. The

hLstorlcal devaluatlon of the authorlty of thls sacred taxt brl-ngs into'

focus the problens confr-onted by modern fLguralIsm: the epistemological

sceptLcJ-sm, the shlft ln the narratÍve center away from the slgns of

Trirth to those of Evil (tne false losos)¡ find a parall-el- Ln the now

foreshortened a1legorJ.c plot: the plot which Lacks the grounds to

produce a "pretextualtr revelatlon.

trapter two explLcates V in terms of thÍs altered figural mode.

The failure of V to dlsclose the transcendental- slgnlfier of the !!g-

llE v. can only be assi-gned to the predominantly demonic or entroplc

slgnificatlons of the flgura *herself'r.

The ontologlcal ambigulty of the flgura- provides a context for

thedl.scuss1onof@.Chaptarthreeattemptstoanswer

the questlon: when the obJects of figural interpretatLon do not belong

to a ProvldentLal scheme, but are signs of a force that actively

disrupts access to a fggg¡ what are the consequences for the narrativeb

relatlonship wlth 1ts pretextual antecedent? fn other words, how is

allegory affected when Lts pretext endorses the disruption of the fig-

ural principles on whlch 1ts quest structure 1s based?

Glven that the fÍgural structure of postmodernlst allegory is

modlfied 1n terms of both its pretext and lts urae the nature of the

postmodernl-st hero must also be affected. The discussion of Gravltvrs

Bainbow attempts to discover the changes produced in the nature and

functlon of the hero by a plot whlch culmlnates in the discl-osure of a

false logos that has been manifest ln a quasi-figural structure of signs.

The concluslon brtefly (re)pì.aces the namatl-ves wlthin their

generlc context, remarklng that whll.st the aLlegoric plot has been

modified through time, nelther the response elicÍted from the reader nor

the generic structures whfch determine this response have changed.

Thls thesis contalns no materLal whlch has been

aocepted for the eward of any other degree or

dlploma 1n any universlty andr to the best of my

knowledge¡ no fiaterlal prevlously publlshed or

written by any other person except where duly

acknowledged..in the text and bfbllognaphy.

ACKNOTTLEDGEI¡ENTS

Wlth gratltude I acknowledge the assistance provided

.thrygglouù the preparatlon of thls thesls by

Professor K,K.Ruthven¡ my supenrisor Mr A.TayIor;

Professor H.Ebgart; and llr B.Taylor.

If there 1s such a thLng as the Clty Sacramentalt

the ctty as outward and vislbLe slgn of lnward and

splrltual tllness or health, then there may have

been, even here, aome contfnulty of sacrament,

through the terrible surface of May.

Bravltyrs RaLnbow

Beatf ouL non vLderunt et credÍterunt..

(Blessed are they that have not seen and have bell.eved)

PÍers Plowman

CHAPTER ONE

;l;¿\

AN ABSTRACT ACCOUNT-OF ALLEGOHY/

Much has been written about modern fictlon i6r general¡ and Thomas

Pynchon fn particular, yet very few crltics seem to be prepared to move

outslde the frame of reference provtded by the o1d realism/experiment-

allsm dfchotomy ln their attempts to determJ.ne Just what "postmodernisin'l

1s. ßeaI1sm Ls obvlously an lnadequate term to describe Pynchonrs

'rproJecttr¡ but the extent of the challenge posed by recent fictlon to

the conventional concept of realism Leaves one with the impression that

lt is now unabl-e to descrJ-be adequate).y gry text; whl"lst the notion of

experimentalism, often deflned as antl-realism, stllL involves the same

discnedlted assumptÍons about the relationshfp between art and realityn

Together, these terms represent a modal epÞroach to contemporary fic-

tion; that ls¡ an attempt to classify and critlcfse texts on the basis

of their style. l,lodal crl-tlcism attends to the relationships existing

between llterary traditlons and genres¡ manifest fn distinctÍve styles:

ironyr satire or the rrexperimentaL reaÌlsm" of the no,r+leau Ioman, for

example. However, the work of P¡rchon, John Barth and Robert Coover,

among othersr represents a movement away from such a modal orlentatlon,

towards the recuperatLon of literary genres which exist as rrsub-catego-

ries'r of, or structural posslbllltfes wl-thfn¡ the broader category of

non-realLstfc form. ft is now generally accep ted that in Pricksongs and

Descants Coover uses the fable forrn and1[allegorical".- Yet there stllL renaLns

using a generlc methodology to approach

Qufl.ltgan has been the onl.y theorist to

Cryfns of Lot 49 and Gravltyrs Ratnbow ln an hlstorical account of

aLlegory as a genr€.

The reason for this must be, at least in pant, that alregory 1s a

that Barthrs Giles Goat-Boy ls

sone resistance to the ldea of

Pynchonts work! llaureen

include a dlscusslon ofl The

notorlously ll-I-deflned terrn, so the notlon of a postmodernist aì-legory

only compounds the problem of deflnltion. The historlcal connotatlons

of thís term suggest that all-egory has undergone a series of transform-

ations - from Plers Plowman through to @ - and, 1t ismy argtrmentr that despite thelr l-mmedlate dlfferences these works do

exhiblt a sustained allegoric form. ft 1s in thls concept of a sustal-ned

form that the clearest dlfference between a genre and a mode lies. A

mode has no characteristfc structure of actlont the deflnitive qualtty

of satLre, for lnstance, resldes ln Íts effect; whlle comedy, tragedy

and allegory are defined by the manner Ln whfch their plots unfold.

Stl1lr the apparent dlsslmLlality between allegoric works does seem to

contradÍct the notl-on of hLstorlcal continuLty and to undermj-ne the

adequacy of the term fo descrlbe Pynchonrs fiction. That is, until- itts recognlsed that such an appearance is common to the hlstorles of allllterary genres. Because a genre is both synchronlc and diachrontc - in

the manner of language itself - each new work fs both a product of the

existlng set of generic features and posslblllltiesr and ls itself a

tnansfon¡atlon of them. Each unique text alters the generic system by

reading l-ts exlstlng and potential features ln a rrew watr So this

fnitial chapter attempts to defl-ne those structurel and substantive

elements whlch constltute allegoryrs generic form, wfthin the context

of thls seemÍngly paradoxfoal process of changfng continufty.

It may stlll be obJected, however, that what this process of

change has ln fact done 1b tranåfstrn,,allegofy out of exlstence; that

the terrn properly describee only those texts wrltten during the medLeval

and RenaLasance perlods whlch are habLtually assoclated with tt, as forexample The Faerle Sueene isr and that any nodlflcatton of the accepted

form locates that wor{< wlthin another genre; one perhaps closely related

to allegory but nonetheless other than 1t. Thls 1s the l-lne of argunent

whlchr taken to lts J-ogtcal extreme, leads us lnto the sonewhat unwieldy

situetlon of one-text genres. But the process of historlcal transform-

atl"on 1s not restrlcted to all-egoryt comedy and tragedy are also capabLe

of subsuming dlfferent fo¡rnal t¡pes while remalnlng dlstlnctly comlc or

tragic. fn each of these genres the structure of the action or the way

ln which the plitt develops is designed to reveal a characterl-stic

metaphyslcal orlentatfon. I'lletaphysl-cal orientatlon'r is my short-hand

term for the complex of attltudes and assumptJ.ons which Ls sometimes

loosely referred to as a generic nworLd-view'r3 the tragic notion of man

confrontfng a unl-verse from rhLch certaJ-nty and absolutes have beenr

wl-thdrawn¡ or the comedlc ldea of a provl-dentially designed unlverse.

ft 1s the detenninlng ldeatLonal force of the genre and lts primary

functlon Ls to provide a dLrectLonal framework for the readerrs response

to metaphysJ-ca] problems and realltfes. So whl}e the conceptual

dimensLons of individual texts are responslve to change as accepted

ldeas about the nature of reality and of lfteraturers relatLon to it

are refo¡mu1ated, these changes occur withln the broader generfc

orfentation which remains stable. Modern "bÌack comedyn may reveel a

klnd of design that ls quite dlfferent in agency to that discovered

operatlng Ln the world of Shakespearean comedy - ãs the descent of Hlnnen

l-n As You Lfke It lntimates a form of order that ls dl-fferent to Kurt

Vonnegutrs discLosure 1n The Sirens of TLtan, that alL human history 1s

rea11y a forrn of message to a stranded space traveller - but still they

both shane the comedÍc orLentatfon towards the concept of a purposeful1y

designed unÍverse. Just as black comedy can be seen as a varlatlon of

the diachronic structure of oomedy, so the modern rdrama of the absurd"

modlfies the baeLc orientàtLon of tragedy. The structure of actior' Ln' a

"conventfonal,, tragedy fs deafgned to reveal dramatically the conditions

under whlch accepted metaphysfcal absolutes are withdrawn from a humanr

sftuatl-on; a situatfon created by the protagonistrs 'tragfc flaw" and

manlfest ln his cholcee whlch dÍrect the actlon. This structure ls

shortened in the modern, exlstentl.allst, "drama of the absurd'r where

the trithdrawal of rellgÍous certainty 1s accepted as an aocompllshed

fact, an artlstlc donnáe. NonetheLess, both forms focus upont and aÌIow

us a g1Ímpse Lnto, the same abyss. Thls compresslon of the generic plot

structure of tragedy is analogous to the way 1n which sone modern

writers have adapted the traditlonaÌ structure of allegory - a polnt

that w1L1 be developed later. For the present, lt is thLs tradl"tional

structura itsetf¡ and the metaphyslcal orientatlon it revealsr that

must underpl.n a deflnitLon of the genre,

Put very simply, the fundamental concern of allegory¡ both struc-

tural and thematic, ls hermeneutic. So the reason for its avallabllity

to historlcal transformatfon goes beyond the fact that simllar genres

also exhlbft thls tendency to change; allegory ls particularly suscep-

tible because 1t 1s an epJ.stemological form. It is responsive to changes

Ín cultural conceptíons of the nature and availabflf-ty of knowledge.

Peter Szondf quotes from tllllhelm Diltheyrs essay 'rThe Rise of Hermeneut-

Ícs" to descrlbe the theory underlying

... the posslbillty of a unfversall-y val-j-d

lnteipretatLon on the basl-s of the analysls

of understandfng ..r along with that of Ínner

experlence r ¡ ¡ (to provfue) tne tndicatl-on of

the possibtlity and the llmlts of a univEFS-

2aIly valld knowledge.-

The three key concepts here, "Ínterpretatlonn, tunderstandlng" and

"knowledgil are all subJect to redeflnition through time¡ and sot

therefore, fs allegory. ThLs should not be taken to mean that the

transformations of allegory represent so¡ne sort of HegeÌ1an or Darwin-

ian evolutionary development, so that a postmodernist allegory oomes

closer to formulating a "unlversalLy val-ld lnterpretation" than does a

fourteenth century work. The conceptual- dlmenslons of individual alIeg-

ories are not related in any such contlnuous, linear rilBfìll€Fr Each text

fs dfsorete and culture-speclflc¡ whl1e the genre ltse1f 1s concerned

wlth interpretatlon ln the abstract rather than with particular

interpretatlve systøns. Dfachronlcall-y viewed then¡ allegory l-s about

the ways !n whlch different LnterpretatLve methods, and the klnds of

perceptlon represented by than, either can or cannot make avaLlable to

our "faIÌenn understandJ-ngs knowledge of transcendent real-Ítles¡ the

',saored'. In l-ts methods and criterla, interpretatfon lnescapably in-

vol-ves value Judgement and lt ls through a process of transvaluatlont

in which the grounds of understanding are shlfted, that the all-egorfc

protagonlst approaches true spfrltual knwledge. So in Book I of IEg

Faerle Sueene, for instance¡ the Bed Cross Knight must dlsoard his

chivalrlc code of values, cease to be a "man of earth" and become a

,,man of God., before he is able to ascend the Mount of Contemplation

and perceive the New Jerusalem. The quest or Journey motif whlch is

common to the structure of all nanatLve allegories establ-ishes this

learnf.ng pfocÊEs¡ as 1t reveals the consecutive, progressJ-ve nature of

"fallen", understanding and knowledge, But the moral Bnd aoctal- concerns

that manifest¡ withLn the narratlve, splrituaL and cognl.tJ.ve problanrs

often are mLstaken for thematLc ends rather than ñBãlls¡ It is the need

to refom Judgenent, upon whlch ethioal choÍce and moral aotion are

based¡ that gives rfse to the central place accorded to lnterpretatl'on

ln allegory.

Of ooræse lnterpretatfon 1s prLnarfly a llngutstfc or textual

enterprise; f.t 1s assuned Ln an allegory that knowledge exlsts in and

through the language struotures irnposed upon experLence. Gonsequently,

end as tlary Gamuthers observes, lt le concerned wlth

,.. (tne) analysis of words as amblguous tools

of thought, capable not only of revealing a

true cognltlon but also of generatíng a

corruptlon of understanding ... 3

It 1s thròugh language that we percelve and know truth¡ but fn a

',fal1entr world language becomes the equlvocal medl-urn that expresses the

opaque nature of thlngs as they appear to a degenerated spirftual

vLsion. The relatlonship between all three terms in the process of

slgnLfication - hr¡man understanding, the verbal- sign and the signífied

obJect - has lost lts orÍginal clarlty. So allegoryr through its lang-

uagre, attenrpts to establt"n fnt"rpretative princlples which make it

posslble to comprehend real-ltLes that cannot now be apprehended lit-

era1ly. These include div{ne lntelllgencesr ideal essences or PLatonic

fdeas¡ forces wlthln the ht¡man psyche and the temporal "invlsiblesrr:

the past and future. But allegory also seeks an ultimate reality that

exists as a princf-ple informing these, a 'rtranscendental signffler"

capable of r:eveallng a true slgnifytng relatlonshlp betweem the wordt

perceíved reallty and dLvinfty (tne WordJ. It ls thls 'rWord' that forrns

the,lother.|(a11os)whlcha11egory'as@,or||other-speakì-ngfl'

seeks to artfculate. The Bib1e, in the lïestern allegorl,c traditJ.on¡

represents such an lnterpenetration: lt both descrlbes the revelation

of God fn the flesh and earthly actlons of Ctrrist, and is itself¡ in

its language, aR expressl-on of this ravelatlon. It is the kind of text

that Èlaureen GluLlllgan descrlbes as .a "pretext", a wor{< that fs able to

iartl.culate the sacredf, throrrgh l-ts language and reveal the way divine

authorlty fs nade knorn 1n the corporBal world.4 Qullligan uses the

terR trpnetexti'¡to suggest the antertorlty of the [saoredi book¡ and its

relatfon to the allegorlc narratlve¡ whlch is both about interpretatlon',

and ls ltse1f an lnterpretatton of lts pretext. Thfs ls a point to whLctr

I wtlL return¡ particularly 1n connectlon wlth the role of the reader

in postmodernist allegory; but 1t should be noted here that the status

of the langr.¡age of the pretext determines the capacity of the narrative

to reestabllsh a univocal system of significatfon. For the pretext

displ-ays the suprarealfst capabf-Ilties of a language that assu¡es that

its slgniflcance reaches beyond that of an arbÍtrary system of signst

to name abstractlons whlch exlst as reaI, actÍve unlversals infomed by

a dtvlne slgnlfl-cator. The Bible demonstrates the actÍve involvement of

God, as the l{ord, in hrman affalrs which, when percelved and i.nterpreted

as a complex system of slgns, reveal an inherent figural reLatfonshLp

between human history and the events of Scrlpture. The figural pattern,

of all-egory fs partfcularly relevant to Pynchonrs adaptatfon of the

genre, but 1t ls the flgural conceptlon of languager as exempllfled by

the wo¡k of St. Ar,gustine, to take one exanple¡ that Ís baslc to aIÌ

narratlve allegories - aLthough lt too becomes problernatlc in later

^5lOflIlS ¡

The perceived world, allegorlcally concel-ved, 1s analogous to a

suprareallst system of signs, which as cognltfve forms refer beyond

themselves to name spJ,rltual realities. Impliclt 1n thLs conceptiom is

the bl-blfcal account of creatlon, of the world created by and so expre-

ssing the;spoken word of God¡ baslc to lt ls the belfef that language

ls the medlum of Godts revelatlon and the foundatl-on of human under-

standing of it. God fs reveaÌed l-n true sfgns, which l-f properl-y lnterp-

reted wfll yellrd knowledge of h{m, that is true though necessarlly

partial. lhderstandlng ts dependent upon lnterpretatlon¡ upon the

assumed relatl.onshlp between the aignJ.ficaton and the sLgnr and the

sign and lts obJect of refpr€ñce¡ These three abstract unlts of sig-

nl.ffcatl-on correspond to the divine [ord¡ the spoken, oll wrltten word¡

and the sÍgnlfJ-ed obJect, respectf.veÌy. Augustlne assures that a stable

and inherent relatf.onship exists between them, establlshed through

Godrs agency and sustained by the conventlons of human l-anguage. But 1n

De TrÍnitate he writes of another wordr an rrlnner word" that ls the

image of the divine in the soul, formed by the lnteractlon of under-

standlng and wiII, whl-ch together constltute the basÍs for moral action'

Augustf.ne further claims that understanding isr in effect, 'caused'f by

the perceptJ-on of the sl-gn, through the perception of the reveal-ed

df-vlnity that {s the signlflcator of all language¡ and the source of

understanding. The correctness or otherwise of understandlng 1s depen-

dent slmply upon oners abll1ty to oread" signs. Chrlstt as the figure

of Godrs revelatlon, fs the archetype of the true sf-gn¡ and the ultl-mate

sÍgnlffcator of language. Hr¡man understandlng fs an image of Ghrist as

the Word, it ls thetrlnner ùüord" forrned 1n the mind. So thLs fourth

element 1n the process of slgnlflcatJ.on, this 'tinner wordrrr fs central

to Augustlners flgural conception of Language. It is informed by the

Word - as an image of the sacred 1ts signLflcator is the $lord - and it

reveals thls relatlonship in the act of naming, as It is evoked as one

of the ,'signifieds" of the literal word. The word names both an outer

obJect of reference and, if fl-gurally percelved, the sacred power that

informs the very process of naning: the Wond imaged tn the speaker's

understanding. The lnner word acts al-so to lndlcate the truthfulness of

words¡ words are known to be tnue Lf they correspond to the J.mage of'

Truth that resLdes wlthÍn the l-ndlvf.duaL soul.6 Th" truthful use of

language raflects a correet understandfng and wilI, whlch fm turn

determÍne correct moraÌ actlon, actLon that displays true knowledge of

the revealed Word. Consequently, materlal sJ'gns - events and words -can become the means by whlch the nature of the Ínvisible Ls flgurally

revealed. ThLe ls of course an LdeaÌLsed linguJ.stf.cl interpretative

model, whLoh Ln its relatlon to allegory represents the "redemptÍonn of

a nfallenr! language. Yet lt also presents a basLc epistønologLcal- prob-

Iem; ls the percelved figural pattern proJected by the mfnd' or does ft

actually resLde ln the nature of reality? lVlrlle the relevanca of thls

questlon to Pynchon's wor{< is readll-y apparent, it is centraÌ to the

whole enterpríse of allegory: the enqù1ry lnto the capaclty of language

to reveal a true cognltlon of the sacred and of truth. In l{estern tradf-

tion, the authorl-tative text for such a fLgural reading of Language and

hÍstory is the Bf-ble, which in lts role as an alLegorLc pretext l-ends

the authorlty of a successful precedent to the fÍgural form of the narr-

ativers language and structure.

T¡pology 1s the mæt obvLous all,egorlc device used to incorporate

the pretext lnto the narrative. By drawlng fictionaÌ events lnto a

reLationshlp wl-th an anterior b1bI1caI structure¡ 1t fs one of aLleg-

oryrs chief tnterpretative strategies for establlshing a continuity

between word, event and divine force or intentlon. But it 1s here thst

allegory as a llterary genre and alleqoresis as a crltlca1 method begin

to converge. The confusl.on between these two enterprlses has resulted

ln considerable theoretical misapprehension about the nature of alleg-

oryr Both are hermeneutlc forms¡ both are methods of commentary¡ but in'

their asstnnptions and intentlons they dlffer qufte radlcal}y. An al-Ieg-

orlc namative can be seen as a commentary that reveals the meaning of

Íts pretext by reenactLng or ¡edlscoverLng ltr nather than by simply

statLng it. Allegory seeks, above all-, to create ln the reader a pers-

onal Ewareness of the slgnLficance of the vaÌues represented by the pre-

text, not only knowledge of lts meaning. Allegoresis however 1s entJ-rely

concerned wLth the problem of meaning; it assurnee that the meaning of

aR antertor wor* has become elther unacceptable or fnaccesslble and so

must be netrLeved through lnterpretêtion¡ It has frequently been noted

that gllgggþ dwel.oped f.n response to the threat posed by historl.oal

shlfts in cultural values to the sacred character of culturally lmport-n

ant mybhs.' The allegorLcal lnterpreter - the practl.tioner of glÞ:

oresf.s - assunes that the text rhldes. Íts meanlng Ín an imaglstLc

spectes of code Ín order to conceal sacred truths from the vulgarr and

to restrict aocess to such knowledge to an e1ite. Consequentlyr it

requlres a dlscurslve herïneneutic to reveal its truth; a hermeneutic

that aLms to valLdate the content of the sacred work without disturbing

its form. Thfis Ls achieved prf.marlly through the constructlon of an

authorial lntentlon, supposed to be inherent 1n the text, which accords

wlth both the Lnterpreterrs rationale and hts contemporaneous cul-tural

val-ues. One of the most often cLted examples of this fs the allegorisa-

tlon oç. Homer by the Stoics who dtsoovered, preflgured 1n hLs wor{<st

Ídeas current ln thelr own time. The authority of Homer¡ whose works

held a canonlcal posl-tLon ln Greet< culturel lyse preserved against

charges of frlvollty and lmmoraLity throúgh the critical revislon

provlded by allegorical interpretatlon. Thl-s method of reviving prÍor

cultural authorLties forms, in part¡ Edwin Honlgts theory of allegorical

conception. StudÍes such as Dark Concelt continue a theoretical tradi-

tion ln which the termLnologY of alleqoresis has been incorporated into

the critLcal lexfcon used to describe allegoric narratives. Consequently

the construction of an authorlal Íntentlon, which justifies the lnterp-

retatl-ve reVision of a "sacredr work by allegoresis, gives rlse to the

notLon that ltterary allegorles are motl-vated by a powerful authorLal

dÍdacticÍ=n. |lLgggþ must assume that unfversal truthsr whLch

úsua}ly coLncide wlth oontemporary cultural bellefsr Br.B both knowabLe

and known; so the Ldeas expressed by the wot* are already knownt and

the crl-tlc has only to reveal them.B Th" work 1s treated as arN express-

lon of,sone Lndependent systenr of ldeas, a referentÍal code that is

chosen qufte arbltrarfly Ln relation to the uror{<, But the allegorfcal

crLtic obJectifles thls arbltrary relation by lnvoktng the concept of

authorial LntentLon, wh!.ch preflgures or antlcLpates these extra-textual

ideas¡

Itlhen the tenns belonging to gllgqgþ are removed from their

specJ-fic context and transferred to the practfcal crltÍcism of lndivid-

ual allegori-c texts, they both suggest and support a model of narratlve

a]-legory as a pre-determlned and prescriptLve form. It ls seen as a

rhetorical device used to sustaÍn a syetem of belLefs - in the manner

of an allegorLsed 'sacredrr work - o¡r us€d to test and prove the eff-

lcacy of noral ldeals in relation to social- realities. Gay Gllffordt 1n

her book The Transfomatfons of Allegorv, terms thts latter purpose

,rexploratory df-dacticLsm,'.9 But tt 1s not trexploratory" at all; ln thls

vl-ew of allegory the pretense of exploratLon disgui-ses the fact that

the allegorlst already knows hls thematlc destlnatlon; namelyt the

vaLorlzation of one Íhterarchyn of value or code of conduct and the

correspondlng devaluation of all others. Her phrase Ls a eupheml-stlc

nay kf assertlng that allegory ls an ideological and conservatlve form.

This notlon attríbutes to the author the same assurnptlons as does gUSg-

oresis: that unLversal truths are knowable and in fact already known.

However, allegory assufnes no such thing. On the contrary, it assumes

that divine truth l-s no longer perceptlble to our Ffallen" understand-

ings and so lnvestigates the capacity of dlfferent Ínterpretativet

llngulstlc systems to reform our apprehenslon of the worldts l4gþ!}þ

and make lts dlvLne allegorla comprehenslble. The theory of allegory

proposed by crltlcs such as Clifford Llrnits lts range of concern to the

moral-, wlthout relatlng those moral problems to the cognitive dilemmas

of whfch they ane spptonatlc.

Theslgn1ffcanceoftheLadylleedepJ.sode1n@has

often been foreshortened 1n thls w6/r As a personLflcation figurer the

external referent or ntenor" to the ivehl"cle" that i.s Lady lúeedt has

been varlously descrfbed as: "a Ia fots rácompense Bt corruptlon" by

Jusserand¡ rreward ln generel and brlbery ln partloular" by Skeat and

Ghambers, whtLe Dunnlng describes her functLon early ln the poem as

,,galn', later modulatlng to "cupfdity".l0 Tht=e somewhat short-sighted

interpretatlons of lleed fatl to recognlse that her status Ln the poem

is prfmartly that of a pun, that she ls lndícative of the ilfaIlen"

state of language. As wlth many allegorLc personificatlon figuresr her

nature is suggested by her genealogy - or rather, her etyrnology. Meed

is condemned by Lady HoIy Church as a bastard: "For Fals was hir fader

that has a flkel tonge".Il Th" medievaL conception of evil is of an

absence of the good, of a formlesgness or meaningÌessness whl-cht 1n

terrns of language, acts to dlsplace words from thelr proper rela-

tionships of slgnlficatlon. tlnder the influence of Falsr Meed is

partlally removed from her legltfmate signifying functlon. That thls is

the sr¡bstance of Holy Churchrs charge of lllegltJ-rnacy 1s made apparent

by Theologyrs contrary claim that she isl !n fact, legftimate; "For

llede is mullere, of Araendes engendred",(1I.119). So in the "falleÉ'l

world of the poem and subJect to the lnfluence of evilr Meed functions

as a pun: her I'transcendental signifled" can be either Truth or Fals.

Her availablllty to two mutual-ly exclusÍve interpretations is enaeted

through the device of the marriage, partlcularly the debate over who

Meed is to marry: Fals Fikel-tonge or Conscience. It is Conscience

alone who recognfses [eedrs true status, who can see that she names

both spJ-ritual treasure and earthly reward, wlthin the more general

sLgnlflcation of 'treasureo. He attempts to deflne both of these r€lest

to expose the llngulstlc confusfon that underl-fes this soclal vlce.

But withln the soctety of Passus II, Meed namea only those reLationshLps

in whlch reward ls dlsproportlonate to desert, It 1s a society ruled by

the ifal-sen, who act to dlsrupt and destroy aI1 coherent verbal, cog-

nltive and moral structures' The problem of meanlng posed by Heed

reveals the capaclty of a "fa!}en" language to generate not only a

corruptlon of understanding but also a corruption of soclety.

Langland's allegory demonstrates the lnterrelatlonshlps whlch

exlst between language, J.nterpretatlon and the manner of cognttlon l-t

reveals¡ and mora], soclal qctLon. But the theory of allegory proposed

by such crltLcs as Gay Clifford f-gnores the llngulstic dimenslon which

forms tþe thematlc substance of allegory, and eonslders lt only as a

mode of expresslon, a way of encoding abstractÍons so that an' ethical

r.Iesson,' is persuaslvely revealed. Thls "alÌegorlc aense'r ls glven,

materlal form by the metaphorl-c or symboll-stic aspect of the narrativet

which also gives these concepts [vf-taI1ty".12 Through the imagery and

the dramatLc relatlonshlps developed in the actionr so Cllffordrs ar-

gument goes, patterns of relatLonshfps are establlshed between fdeas

and abstractions, along wlth a scale of val-ues or "hlerarchyrr by which

to Judge the slgnlflcance of lndivldual lncidents and thelr relevance

to the overall meaning. The temporal unfoÌding of the pl"ot is assumed

to be control-led and dfrected by a dldactl-c authorial obJective and the

primary necessf.ty that the reader percelve ft. Consequentlyr all

aspects of meanlng are referred back to this emergent didactlc theme.

Northrop Frye,s comments about allegory have fuelLed this theoretlcal

approach¡ observations such asi

We have actual- allegory when a poet explicitty

indlcates the relatf-onshf-p of his lmages to

examples and preceptso .¡. If thLs seems to be

done contLnu.ously¡ we malr say¡ cautlouslyr that

what he 1s wrlting "lst an aIlegory. In The

Faerle Queene, for Lnstance¡ the narrative

systematJ,calÌy refers to hfstorical examples and

the neanlng to moral precepts, besides dolng

their own work Ln the 0o"".13

The concept of an tmage structure that corresponds expll'clt1y and

continuously to an external structure of Ldeas effectlvely reduces the

allegorLc narratlve: ln the manner of an allegorfsed trsacred" work.

The role of the allegorlslng critic 1s asslgned to the allegoristr wlth',

the difference that he is no longer envJ.saged as revealing sacred truths

but instead expoundÍng moral ones. Associations between allegory and

dldacttclsm are largeLy responsible for this scenarlo, together wlth

the sustalned notlon that texts do not mean what they llteralÌy say.

All-egoresLs relies upon the assumptf-on that a radlcal disJunction exists

between the llterary sÍgn and lts obJect of reference, a disJunction

that must be brldged by a discurslve hermeneutlcr elther wlthln or

external to the work. Hence the idea that an allegorl-c work contains

withln itself an expllcit commentar¡r on lts own actlon and image stru¡c-

ture. Thls 1s the origln of the concept that allegory ts a hierarchical

form and of the crltlcal focus upon supposed "leveLs" of meanlngr whl-ch

ln later theorislng are lncorporated l-nto a substantive concern with

hierarchl-es of vaIue.

Medl-eval discusslons of multJ-p1e allegorlcal meanLngs use not the

term''1eve1s.l,butg1E@orry.1,4Th"metaphorof1eve1s,

with lts connotations of stratLflcatlon and hlerarchy ls a specf-fical1y

modern usag€ and one which seens to derlve from allegoresis. The alleg-

orising crltic, finding the literal trlevel( of the wor{< unacceptable,

turns hls attentÍon to its r'levels[ of reference, whl-ch are found to

prefigure contemporaneous culturaL val.ues. Thfs practice became the

methodologlcal basLs of the fourgfold exegesls of the Bible, wherein

four aspects of meanLng - the literal, alLegoricaL¡ tropoLogical and

anagogical - correspond to the Ctlristian conceptlon of the structure of

the unl-verse. As a practlcal crLtlcal- tooI, thls theoretlcal scheme ls

notorLously dlfflcul-t to apply; as Ls well known 1n the case of'Danters

The Divine Gomed However, the concept ls stilL current and seens to

have been ratfonallsed l-nto the be1lef that llterary allegorles are

aubstanttvely concerned with the analysis of slmLlarÌy stratJ-fied sys-

tems of value. Angus FLetcherts metaphor of '¡satellltes'r of meaning,

l-aunched into orbit by the work's l!!þg, is more accurate.ls tt

suggests that as the allegory proceeds it uses dlfferent nairatlve

modes - different ways of glvlng mean,ing to or understanding the narr-

ative - to encourage 1n the reader a serles of dlfferent forms of

perceptlon. Consequently, the kind of meanlng expressed by the work

varies with the perspectlve 1t provldes for the reader. As one set of

thematic or Lmaglstlc assoelations, one nsatel1lte", 1s brought to the

fore another recedes to the background.

Both Glles Goat-BfiJt and the Prologue to t@!@. provide

examples of this technLque. The reader of the Prologue Ls madd to

recognise, through a constent varLatl-on of lnterpretatlve perspectivegt

that the,lsatellitesr of meaning derived from the work's littera are

determined by the structures thrrcugh whl-ch they are perceived ' Forrnal

structures such as these - fabl-e, sermonr personiflcation¡ satlre - are

suppJ.antedbysubstantivehermeneuticperspectives..tn@'

The characters encountered by the hero, George¡ are loaded with histo-

rlcal¡ psychological, phlì.osophlcaI and sociologicaÌ significance.

Georgets mentor, Max Spfelman, ls associated wl-th Chiron and Virgrllt

Efnstdfir and Oppenhelmer, Freud and Jung; in his archetypal aspect he is

the eternally wandering and suffering Jew; whlle 1n the context of the

'storyil;,he ls the rhumane scientist". To adopt any one of these iden-

tltles as his only "referent'r is to foreground one set of associatlons

as an itnterpretatLon of his function and signlfÍcance, a "satellLte. of

meaning, which forces aLL other posslble fnterpretations to recede lnto

the background. Such 1s the, case wlth most of the characters in thls

allegory. But the whole process relies absolutely upon the lLteral

surface of the wor{< whlch contalns alÌ aspects of meanfng, all possible

trsatellltesr. A crucial dlfference between an allegorised text and an

allegorf.c narratlve 1s that allegoresls effectl'vely consunes this

verbal surface as 1t draws 1t lnto an explJ-cit correspondence with some

external system of ldeas; the l-lttera ceases to be unique as it becomes

an lI]ustratlon of a system of cultural beliefs. This happens al-so to

an allegory when treated as an expresslon of moral values; lts verbal

aspect, 1f seen as an imaglstlc code, disappears in the act of decoding'

But because of its polysemantLc nature an allegoric namative is never

completely exhausted tn thls way. As Mary Garruthers observes of Piers

Plowmsn¡ the problem of meanlng ls as difftcult for its chsracters as

it Ís for lts readers. The language of the poem, and the linguistlc

oontext in whfch lts characters mover 1s marked by amblgultyr punsr and

half-realised metaphoric lmpllcatLons. trt is a radlcally ifaLlenrr lang-

uage which the poem seeks to "redeem'r by pursuing and analyzing the

signs that express truth.16 C"""uthers and Qullligan both have noted

the concern wlth f-nterpretation ln allegory, that 1s a concern with the

capaclty of language and llterary wor*s to express truth. But the alleg-

orist questlons the assumption thtt glþggþ flnally affirms: whlLe

the allegorist conducts hl-s enquiry l-n a narrative form, the aIleg-

orical- critic expresses the 'rtruth'r of a text in a discursive commentary.

However, aLlegory does l-mltate¡ among other cognitive formsr thls

very process of discurslve reasonlng, of exegesls. If we were to vlew

allegory in Arl.stotelLan terms 1t would appear to lmitate not 'nature"

but the nature of the mlnd. Sor as llaureen QulLllgan puts ltr allegory

must use

... that system of signs that retrl-eves for

us the process of lntellectÍon.I?

Interpretation Ls the subJect of the narratLve actlon, but that actlon

Ís performed by language, wlthfn the context of J-anguage, and in: such a

manner that the fu]1 cognÍtlve capabflltles of language are explored.

The generlc plot structure of allegory begf.ns by establishing the

fallen condltlon of language and the extent of the disruptlve effect

thl-s produces ln every soclal, moral and cognitive systen of relatfons.

Later lt wfI1 be argued that these effects are produced through the

operatlon of entropy: the conceptual metaphor which, Ín Pynchonrs work,

supplants that of the Fall. EnrerBrlng from this contextr a questj-on or

dilemma 1s posed: Langl-andrs ttill: asks "how nay I save my soul?; the

Red Dr-oss Knight ls set the task of slaying the dragon; Stencil asks

',what or who ls V.?"; and Oedlpa questlons the existence of the Trystero.

The solution to probl-ems such as these lnvolves the whole probLem of

salvatlon, of dlscovering whether or not the invisfbLe - moral and

splrltual - concepts slgnified by language are real, and 1f words are

adequate as the sJ-gns of these'rtruths". Consequently, the hero/1ne is

unprepared lnitially to succeed' But the quest he pursues takes the

form of a learnlng process; lts temporal development images forth the

progressive nature of his pursult of knowledge, whi-ch is the reconstruc-

tion of hÍs understanding; his capacity to read correctLy. The attempt

to "redeem'r understandlng 1s lntrlnsLcally bound to the "redemptlonrr of

language, and can be achleved only through lnterpretation. Thereforet

1t is prlmarily the lmages 1n the narratlve that express the herors

progreas.

As noted 1n relation to Glles Goat-Bov¡ when the structure

through whLch the Ímages are presented fs changed¡ a new cognitlve

perspective Ls revealed: a dLfferent "satell1te". Or to put Ít in

AUgUstiners terms, the altered perceptlon,of, the sign "causesr an'.

alternatfve forrn of understandLng. Throughout the naruatlver a varla-

tlon of imagistLc devlces develops and reveals a consecutiveÌy more

eomplete comprehenslon of the llord, truth, that ts the sLgnf.flcator of

aLI language and history and whlch nakes then slgnLfLcant' The progre-

ssl-on from lnitlal opacJ-ty to increaslng transþarency of meanlng as the

images are expllcated, as the netaphorlc 'rtenors' are gradually

dlscovered, ls the temporal relatlon between presentatlon, explication

and revelatlon that underlles dlscursive reasoning. Although the

lmages at first appear opaquer cl-ues to thelr meanings are glven and it

is in the lntrlcate process of unravellfng that follows that allegory

Lmitates the mental processes of interpretation. So in Book f of E

Faerie Queene. Unats lnttlal-ly velled appearance indlcates the inad-

equacy of the Red Gross Knight's comprehenslon of truth: although he

sees truth, he sees lt lmperfectly wLth onì-y an lntultlvet clouded

knowledge of lt. Of course the meaníng of such an image may sÊem appar-

ent Ímmedlately to the reader; so lt should be noted here that a gap

often exists between the rhetorlcal world available to the reader and

the allegoric or textual, world of the character. So meanings which are

apparent to the readerrs mLnd may not be accesslble to the hero at a

gíven stage ln his development. The tableau scene that opens t-LË

Plowman is a case ln polnt. The meaning of the scene may be seen s1mply

as an emblematlc renderlng or encoding of an abstract spirltual struc-

ture assu¡med to exist ln the world: the "Tower of Truth" on highr the

,'Dungeon of Evllil below and the world of commonpLaoe humantty wandering

between. It is not untll ìlilL repeatedly questtons the meanlng of the

Scenesthatsurround.hlmthatthelr@'slgnf.ficanceSareseento

be highly questionable Lndeed¡ the tower may well be that of "Truth'r,

but what then ls "Truth"? So the reader and character reach a polnt ln

thelr respective questlonlngs where thfs dùsJunctlon becomes a conjunc-

tion, It ls Ln thLs way that allegory draws the reader l-nto an lnterp-

retatLve reÌationshlp wfth lts unstated meanlngsr as the hero assunes

the status of a 'rsurrogate-read€rrtr The devl-ces of Lnterpretatfve

nLnesLs lnvolve the two ireaders' l.n the Lnterpretatlon of a common

After the tnitlal question or dLLemma ls posed, the charaoteristlc

alIegorlc plot proceeds, through a series of lnterpretative narrative

modes, to develop the ninner word' of the hero. This ls prerequislte to

a figural perception of the "Word", of the sacred which informs all

aspects of the allegoric text, through the pretext. The herors cha-

racter is one obJect of analysls wlthln the narrative; the concepts

with which he ls confronted and the perceptual forms 1n which they are

presented also partlclpate 1n whole spLritual structure that is the

alLegoryrs context. PersonlfLcatlon figures, for instancer are both

representative of subJectlve psychological states and are themselves

assr¡med to exist obJectively as abstract entlties, It was mentloned

earlier that aLlegory seeks to establish interpretative principles that

make posslble the comprehenslon of realltles that cannotr in a post-

lapsarÍ-an world, b.e apprehended literalLy. Realitles whlch lnclude

ideal essenoes or Platontc ldeas, dlvine intelllgencesr and forces

withln the human psyche; a1l- of whlch exl-st subJectively through percep-

tfon and obJectiveì-y as discrete entities. Gonsequentlyr the metaphoric

flgures whlch are rÊveated analftlcally to be representatlve of these

',realitfes" are of differing ontological status. 5o the learning process

in whl-ch they particlpate teaches the hero not only to distinguish'between appearance and reality but also to recognlse dlfferånt sig-

nifying forrns of Truth and the FaLse: to develop and fulf1l his owro

rrinner wordrr, that necessary understandíng of both absolutes which is

central to the flgural conceptlon of language.

But figuralism fs essentlally an historLcal mode of interp-

retation: it reveals signs - words, persons and events - to be aspects

of a sptrltual pattern that 1s manlfest through time. One event is

lnterpreted through another; the ÍmmedLate slgn'or Ëgg embodfes and

reveals in lts meanlng the !çg foreshadowed in it. So the past pre-

fl-gures the present¡ the present reveals and fulfills the pasti and both'

prefigure a future revelatLon. This future event to whLch they both

polnt is, Ln the Ghristian exegetical tradltionr to be the ultl-mate

fulfilment of the divine semLotfc pattern, the Last Judgpment and the

end of a1f time. Thus temporal events are lncomplete in an hfstorical

form, their fulfilment fs constantly deferred, but they are eternally

fulfilþd in Godrs provfdenttal deslgn. From the perspective of eternity

they have always exlsted, though veiled from hurnan'perceptLon. TLme ls

the medLum of revelatLon as 1t links temporal slgns wlthin the dívfne

pattern but flgural time ts the progressive manlfestatlon of this patt-

Er¡¡ whl-ch is both atemporal and omnitemporal. Like the signs which

express it, 1t exLsts wlthln all- tlme, but unllke them it ls a divlne

order than ultimately transcends temporal categories. The hlstorical

figr¡ra ltse}f both gives temporaL forrn to the tLmeless and ls a sl-gn of

it; it 1s as walter BenJamJ-n argues, both an emblem of "hldden

knowledgeN and ltseIf an obJect of knowledge¡18 ot in Erich Auerbachrs

words, lt J-s

... the creatlve¡ formative prl-nciplet

change amld the enduring essencer the

shades of meaning between the copy and

the archetyp".19

A flgural- herrneneutfc ls requlred to reveal the contfnuity of the

divine pattern lnforming human history. That which we percelve as a

temporal progression, a sertes of dfscontlnuous rnoments, ls unifled 1n

the spirl,tual order whlch exists l-n É6odrs eye-view" as hlstory-a11-at-

oneer The aocuracy of lnterpretatfon Ls directly dependent upon a

correctly orlented w111 and spLritual understandÍng: the Lnner word

that recognfses slgns. ln thelr relationshlp to a dlvlne reallty. The

vLsible sl-gn fs reslgnlfied thror¡gh lnterpretatlon from Lts literal

reference to lnclude a spf.rltual stgnlficance. So flgural f.nterpretation

demonstrates an lnner intelÌlgence of the nature of the revealed Word.

Meani.ng 1s not dLvorced from the'rspirlt" whlch lnforms ft; the slgn

slgnifLes a 11teral obJect of reference and metaphorÍca1J.y, a spirltual

reallty. This lnterpretative understandlng 1s further reveaÌed in

flgurally signlficant narratlve actlon: as remarked earller, the "lnner

word" 1s the agent of moral actlon.

The flgural conception of an order of reallty that is comprehen-

sible rather than apprehensl-b1e, but whl-ch lnforms the vlsible; is

fundamental-ly P]atonLc. The Word corresponds, 1n Chrlstlan termsr to

the Platonic ldea of a unlty, an archetypaL One that exists behind the

multtpllcity of history and language, or the varf.ety of sensory ex-

perlence. Thus¡ worldly phenomena - the vislbÍIta of the alì-egoric

world - eErB assgmed to be e function of the unseen Idea or transcendent

pattern, the revelatl-on of wh{ch ls the climax of the generic aLlegorlc

plot. The development of thls plot 1s based upon the assumption of a

functional analogy between materLal phenomena and spirltual real-ity; so'

the allegoric rworld" ltself comprÍses a system of significant corres-

pondences whlch become progressively more apparent as the herots capa-

clty to percelve and understand 1s enlarged. So the style of an aL1eg-

oric narrative - that Ls, the nature of lts lnrage structure - is in the

broadest 6ense symbolf.c. A protracted controversy'about this symbollsttc

aspect of alLegory still ragesr añd one consequÊnce of this debate l-s

that the business of defLnJ.ng the genre has been correspondtngly

limLted. All symbollc modes share the assunptlon that an fntegral reLa-

tlonshJ.p exLsts between modes of belng, and that knowledge of lnvislble

realltles ts aval-Lab1e through the prlnciple of analogY. The Romantic

concept of the synbol, however, denLes lte functj-on as a conventlonal

ep!-sternological slgn and constructs of lt Lnstead a mystical bridge

between the imaglnation and a transcendent unlty. The 914!@conceives of the world as the emanatlon of a dlvine One, and the symbol

as an avenuB for dlrect, non-dlscursÍve knowledge of that divJ.nJ-ty. So

the symbol both partlclpates in, and fuses wfth, the reality of the

'fOther'r 1n a form of mystlcal metonymy, a momentary illumlnation or

vision¡ But thls conception overlooks the fact that both the allegoric

slgn and the symbol are characterlsed by an inevj-table dlscrepancy

between the form of the f.mage and its meaning. Thelr primary difference

is one of degree. The syrnbolic referent 1s assumed to be somehow inher-

ent or lncarnated 1n the vlslble lmage, whereas the allegorlc image

operates on the prlnclp1e of metaphor: fts referent is displaced fronr'

the metaphorl-c ,.vehlcleI so that 1t can be discovered through interp-

retation, progressÍvely and anaì-ytically, in the lmitatlon of discurs-

lve reasoning. A1legory assumes that an lnherent relationship exlsts

between the world's visibilla and lts unseen allegoriat but 1t is a

relatlonship that can only be revealed through a discursive hermeneutic.

Thj-s relatlonshlp is temporal-Iy perceived es one of dependences the

dependence of what 1s Literally seen upon that whlch is seen through

metaphor. These are dlfferent modes of bel-ng and¡ as lsabeL MacGafferey

argues, are not asswned to be identlcal, as they are by the symbolists.

A gep alwa¡rs exists ln the analogy, but it 1s the fact of this analogy

that llnks them ínto a single provLdentlal scheme' Just as the exis-

tence of a word suggests that of lts referent, so vlsible phenomena

1oglcaI1y1mp1yanabstractcauseandthewor1d's@assumesthe

existence of lts a11egorla.20 Tn" allegorLc narrative is based upon'

this sort of loglc, and traces its deve!.opment through untíI the rela-

tionshJ.p between the partfcuÌar and the universal becomes apparent:

untll the Red Gross Knight perceJ-ves the flgural pattern of history and

and WiIl understands the central slgnlfylng functioni ln language of the

l{ord.

It was noted above that the ldea of a splrltual order of reality

lnformlng hl-story and language ralses a baslc epistemologl"cal problem;

ls the percelved order proJected by the mind or does it reside in the

nature of reaLity ? Piers Plownan and The Faerle Sueene assume that ít

exlsts obJectlvely in reality but can only be approached through interp-

retation; that l-s, through the mlnd' GonsequentLy, the narratlve at

flrst focuses upon the deveÌopment of the herors manner of lnterpretlngt

his ,,1nner word', whJ-ch enables hlm flnally to perceive thls divÍne

pattern and gaín the knowledge necessary to the successful completlon

of the task¡ or solution to the problem, wl-th whLch he set out. The

allegorJ-c plot does not however end wLth thl-s spirltuaL enlightenment

or realLsatlon. All allegorlc narratfves are characterlsed by a flnal

return to the contl-ngentt Redcrosse's return to the New Jerusalem is

deferred lndeflnttely, wlth the impLlcatlon that other "feends" may yet

appeer; whlle the Antlchrl-st dominates the ection of the finaL passús

of@andltiI1,afterhel-sassnti1tedbydE1de,,,takesrefuge

in the church "Unlteets which 1s under seige by the "false'r. For lf

Truth exlsts obJectivel-y ln reallty, so too then does the Falser and

elthough the hero may learn to read the slgns whfch constitute his

"wor]d,' so that the redeeming pattern of truth is perceJ.vedr thls does

not save the socfety fallen deep into apostasy. But the predominant

effect of this return to the temporal and the "fafl-en" 1s to cast doubt

upon the exlstence and efflcacy of a nedeemJ.ng orderr and to put the

reader ln the positlon where he must choose and either assent to the

pattern of redemptlon outllned by the narrative or reJect 1t. Later

allegorists, such as Hawthorne and Melvl-lle, Bàrth and Pynchonr place

the reader in a simllar position. EFut rather than begin with the assunp-

tlon that a divlne reallty exfsts obJactlvely; Ëlåwthorne and MelvllLe

assume that ¡neanfng ls proJected subJectfvelyr and then enquire lnto

the posstbtllty that tt also exlsts obJectivelyr aa a transcendent Ideat

separate from the lndlvidual conscl.ousness. But although this baslc

eplstemologfcal problem 1s thus approached from a dl-fferent directlon,

the forrn of these later allegorles still Gorresponds to that of earller

ltraditiona]-" al-legorfc narratives; l-t ls simpl¡r a revlsionary re-

readi-ng of the formal posslbilltles of the genre.

A modificatÍon of the plot structure accompanies this shift in

approach¡ a modificatLon that affects the status of the pretext ln reL+

tion to the narrative. As was mentloned above, an allegory is a fic-

tfonal fo¡m of comnentary upon an anterior pretext or wo¡k that is

reputed to artlculate the sacred. But the capacJ-ty of the narrative to

produce a pretextual revelatfon Ls determlned by the herors abilJ-ty to

read the temporal signs of a spirltual or invisible realltY. !@

Plowman and @ attempt to redeem the effects of the FalL

by reesteblishing the pattern of ClTrlstian redemption, by reslgnlfying

their metaphorlc signs so that they become signfficant in relatlon to a

perceived divine pattern. However, the domfnant metaphor of a modern

allegory like Hawthorners "Rappaccfnlrs Daughter" Ís revealed to be

signlficant only in terms of a psychological order of reallty' This is

thecasewl-ththepersonificationffguresofBook1of@

gry, but Redcrosse 1s able to progress beyond the stage of a

psychologfcal self-awareness to perceive lhe sf.gns of a figural order

operatlng within hlstory. Hawthiirne's hero, Glovannf, does not reach

the stage of self-knowledge. Through the pretextual Eden mytht

ñRappaccJ-nÍ.s Daughterú re-enacts the Fall; but lt ls through a contrast

with The Oivlne Comedv that the extent of thls 'fa11" fs revealed and

the nature of what l-s fallen from ls implled. l¡lore so than Ln earlfer

allegorles 'rRappaccinirs Daughter" places the onus upon the reader to

decide whether or not a spir|tual order of realftyrexlsts to be

percelved. The functlon of the pretexts Ís to suggest that it does but

the fact that the central revelatLon takes place wlthLn the context of

the coirtJ.ngent casts doubt upon it. Llke all allegorfes the meanings

contaíned 1n oBappaccinlrs Daughterr do nolt exlst outside a semlotLc or

pseudo-llnguistLc eystem. However, a central sign or Word which inforrns

thls system is revealed through the pretextual actlon of both Piers

Plowman and The Faerle Queene. It is the lnabillty of Hawthorne's narr-

atfve to identify such a transcendental "center" wl-thin the play of its

slgns that accounts for the final ambigulty of its splritual dimension

and the foreshortening of lts plot. And 1t ls the reader who, l-n the

act of lnterpretlng the narratLve, must 'center' its metaphoric system.

Thls 1s one of the dgapsn whlch characterlse the allegoric narr-

ative and which¡ as Wolfgang Iser puts J-t, must be closed through the

"free play of meanlng-proJection".2Ì HanY theorfsts have observed the

paratactic or eplsodlc character of allegory, and the characteristlc

absence of causal Linkages between eplsodes, So it is the reader who

must uncover the relations whlch are not expressed by the narrator, by

f1l1ing ln these "gaps* herfieneutically. ln thfs way, the reader Ís

drawn lnto the processes of lnterpretatlon whl-ch are the subJect of the

narratlve actfon; the obJect of all-egoryrs interpretative mimesis fs its

reader. As the rrtenors'r of the metaphortc "vehiclesI become increasingly

apparent to the hero, as the narrative progresses, so too the readerrs

interpretatlon becomes lncreasLngly more complete. The participatlont

whl-ch lg; thus requlred of the reader, urges an lntrospection lnto the

ways Ín which meanÍng is produced. The reader 1s placed in a position

akLn to that of the herr: both learn the answers to the problems posed

by the narratl-ve by learnlng - !n the readerrs case re-learnlng - how

to read.

But the lnterpretation of an allegory does proceed temporally; lt

is the need to revlse constantly the interpretatlon¡ in terms of the

next epl.sode fn the sequence, that creates an exegetical self-awareness

and undermLnes any confldence the reader:rmay/ have initiaLly ln theLr

abtltty to read correct!.y. For example, the reader may conff-dently

interpnet Luclfera as a t¡pe of Prtde, so the character and actlon of

that eplsode of The FaerLe Sueene ls s1mply translated lnto an abstract

statement. Yet shortÌy afterwards Redcrosse encounters OrgogJ-1-or also a

t¡pe of Prl-de. Thls may seem inconsistent or even lrrelevant until the

differlng ontologlcal status of the two Is recognÍsed: Luclfera 6s an

incarnatlon of Prfde stgni.fles an aspect of the Knightrs psychological

state, but Orgoglio 1s Pride itself obJectlvely conceived and lndic-

ative of the ev1I Ln which Redcrrsse participates. They sre among the

causes or motlves whlch al)-egory elucldates; causality fs oblfquely

dramatised by requLrlng that the reader recognfse the speciffc slgmif-

icance of a particul-ar ceuse¡ Thus aLlegory's episodic form Ís the

result of the attempt to lnvolve the reader in its development. Ll-ke-

wise, the self-reflexlve or self-referentiaL quality of the allegoric

narrative f.s designed to distract the readerrs attentlon from the l-it-

eral storyllne and refocus 1t upon the productf.on of meaningr to dÍscorr

rage a LLteral readlng whlch overlooks the allegoryrs cognttlve and

llngufstic concerns.

The narratlve is predicated on the idea of a universe cha-

racterised by slgnifl-cant correspondences yet 1t 1s the reader who must

identify an inherent relatfonshf.p between the elements of the analogyt

based upon a single slgnlfylng center. The reader f-s requJ-red to

compÌete the correspondence between a temporal¡ material sfgn - the

text - and lts potentially dlvtne dimensl-on; a response to the sacred.

This personal response is the flnal aim of all aI3.e(¡ories. The alleg-

orlc napatLve Ís chafacterl.stlcally open-ended: it concludes within'tte

context of the conti.ngent rather than the absolute in order to cornpeL

such a choice and such a response. The rrmetaphysloal orf.entatfon" of

allegory l-s thls. Like conedy and tragedy, the temporal structure of

Lndlvldual plots may alter, br¡t the mstaphysLcal orientatlon of the

genre does not change. Just as comedy Ls desf.gned to reveal a purposeful

desl-gn operatLng wlthln the unLverse and tragedy to demonstrate the

withdrawal of rellgJ-ous certalnty, so allegory l-s designed to reveal a

significant interpretatLve correspondence between temporal signs and a

[sacred'r reelf-ty. Modern narratives mayr thrsugh the altered status of

the reader, suggest that thls analogl-cal reLatlonship exists subJec-

tively and that the percelved spirltual order has only a potential-

obJectlve exlstence, but the response that 1s compeLled In the reader

is the same as that requlred bY Piers Plowman or The Faerfe Sueene.

The plots of these "tradltlonal" allegories begfn by establishlng

the effects of the Fa11 1n every set of temporal relatlonships' A

central questlon emerggs from this context and in the attempt to solve

the diLemma the narrative explores a varlety of interpretations or

interpretatlve modes whích also nurture and develop the Augustini'an

',lnner wordr of the hero. In later aÌlegories the hero is unable to

overcome hls cognJ,tive weaknesses but the reader Ínstead is obliged to

develop, through interpretation, the understandû'ng and capacity to read

correctly. ft is thls abLllty whtch idealtr-y leads the tradítional herot

and the reader, to a specles of epf-phany¡ a reallsatlon of the invfs-

ible order that lnforms a temporal semiotl-c system. The herors

"illunlnatlon" J.s, however¡ only momentary and the namative quickly

returns hlm to the context of the contLngent. The reader of a modern

alleg'ory ls compelled to respond to a transcendent real-j-ty @ the

context of the contlngent; the plot structure Ís 1n thls way fore-

shortened¡ as the result of a changed attltude towards the ontologlcal

status of the percef.ved splrltual order. ThLs modlflcatlon l-s analogous

to the shortenLng of the tragfc plot by the modern drana of the absurd'

The response elicited from the reader though¡ aîd the metaphysical

orfentatlon of the genre 1t reveals, remaln ln both cases unchanged. In

'effect the llterary plot ls, as Jonathon Culler observes, "the temporal

proJectlon of thematlo structures'r¡22 And although the substantlve

dlmenslons of lndlvl-dual texts may change through tfmet with a

corresponding alteratl-on ln plot, these "thematlc structures" whlch

characterise the genre encompass historfcal transformatlons.

The hlstorlcal modlfLcatLon of allegory - the context for

Pynchon's work - Ís due largeLy to a change ln attltude towards the

pretext. The obJectlve staùus of the revealed spiritual or flgural

pattern is valldated, tn conventl-onal allegorlc narratives, by the

authorlty held by the sacred pretext. As a pretextual commentaryr the

narratlve shares the authorlty of the anterior workr But as the valid-

lty of thls prlor authority lncreaslngly comes lnto questiont the onus

1s placed upon the reader to confer a private authorlty upon both the

pretext and fts narrative commentary. Consequently, ln modernist and

postmodernlst alLegoric forrns the pretext shares the self-consciously

flctive nature of the whole construct: text and narratlve commentary.

But¡ as in the allegorl-es of Hawthorne and Melville, there must always

exl-st the possfbllity that a slgnified rsacred' order may reslde in

reallty and that a "transcendental slgnlfler" may yet be revealed amld

the free play of the allegor1c signs.

John Barth rs GL1es Goat-BoY and V1adlmir Nabokov's PaIe Fire

represent two signl-fÍcant though antlthetlcal responses to this histor-

ical devaluatfon of pretextual authority - a probLem to which alL mod-

ern allegories must address themselves. Gl-les Gaat-Bov , by incorporatlrg

a conslderable nunber of pretexts lnto its system of signffication

calls lnto question, but finalLy affirms, both the relevance and valLd-

f-ty of the pretextual relatlonshÍ-p. The archetypal or 'sacred'r dlmenslon

of the hero's quest encapsulates the mythic lLves of Ghristr Buddhat

Aeneas and Dante, anongst others. But on the other handr a work such as

PaIe Flre effectivel y demonstrates the incapaeity of an ironic or

parodfc relatLonship between the pretext and lts narratLve commentary

to produce allego ry.23 As was mentl-oned previously, the pnJ-mary

functl-on of the pretext ls to establlsh a suprareallst system of signs

which Ls amenable to a flgural hermeneutlc and is consequently capable

of namlng real and actlve universals and of maklng comprehensible the

sacred pourer that informs phenomenal events and language. It is thls

functJ-on, represented by the pretext as a fait accompLf¡ that velidates

any simJ-Iar accompllshment by the allegorlc narratlve. At the same time

the narrative, as a pretextual commentary, Ls designed to create 1n the

reader an auyareness of the values represented by the pretext and of lts

status as an authoritatlve lnterpretatlon of the wor1d. The characteris-

tic allegoric relatlonship between the narrative and pretext is¡ there-

foré, symbfotlc.

Pale Fire , however, substitutes for this scheme a parasl-tic rela-

tlonshLp between text and commentary; ft focuses squarely upon the

problem of alLegorícal lnterpretatj-on - allegoresis - by J-ncluding the

prior, privlleged text |n the form of a document. This explicit

presentation of the pretext works counter to Íts conventÍonaI allegoric

function, violating as 1t does the distance which is tradltionalLy pre-

served between the allegoric text and lts pretext. Allegory establlshes

the pretextual relationship 1n an oblique manner! prÍmari-Iy through

typology¡ slgnJ-ffcantly named characters or f1gurally slgnlficant

actlons. The texts exist ln para1Ie1, a herrneneutLc dlstance separatJ-ng

them. In thLs way, the aLlegoric narratLve attends to the eignlficance

of the pretext rather than its speclfJ-c meanfng' A maJor polnt of

divergence between allegory and allegoresis has already been located 1n

this dlstinctlon between the signiflcance and the meaning of the sacred

textr As I have poLnted out, while allegory Ls concerned wLth the

broadly conoeLved spirltuel slgntftcance of the pretextt allegoresis

attends onLy to lts specific textual meanf.ng. In other wordsr g!gg-

oresls deals with the pretext as a document: a document the meanl-ng of

whtch has becone either unacceptable or inaccessl-ble, and whlch must be

retrleved through ínterpretation. The l"nstablllty of meanlng thus

assumed by alleqoresls is at odds wlth the allegoric conceptlon of the

pretext. In the form of a document, susceptLbl-e to a revlsÍonary

thematLc lnterpretatfon that leaves its form undlsturbed, the authorlty

of the pretext 1s radically undermined: the text becomes a function of

lts lnterpretation. A" glLEg@ lncorporates the pretext into Ltself

- Iltera11y consuming it - it creates a closed system of meaníng that

contragts sharply wlth the open-ended character of allegoric naffatives.

Allegory requfres of the reader an lndependent response to that which

Ís revealed through the pretext: the sacred. The closed system estab-

Lished through alletoresls however , precl"udes such a response. Maureen

Quf.11iganmakesasimf1arpointinherbr1efdiscussionof@'

arguing that this text does not constltute an allegory because

What 1s mlssing from Pal-e Flre 1s , ln fact¡

the essential ingredJ.ent of the pretext. 24

fn fact¡ a speclficslly sacred pretext 1s what Pale Fine lacks. John

Shade's poem functlons as the pretext onì.y in the lÍtera1 sense that lt

f-s a prior text: prl.or to Kinboters allegorising commentaryo Togethert

the text and commentary form a cl-osed system desígned to lead the read-

€r¡ not to a recqgnitÍon of the aIÌegorlc "other'r (a11os), but deeper

and deeper lnto a lab¡æinth of verbaÌ complextty as the pretext dis-

appears, becomlng the shadow or rfshade'r of its interpretatLon¡ lïhere

allegory requlres that the reader choose among potentlal "realitles'l

and so respond to the sacred dfunensLon of the pretextr PaIe Fl-re under-

mlnes the whole notlon of the *real-" 1n favor of the l-maginative or

f{ctive¡ Consequently, Pale Flre cannot be considered an aÌIegoric narrr-

ative: the parasltlc relatfonship between pretext and commentary whlch

1t anatomlses provides the basls for a complex parody of g.fþggÞt

but precLudes the posslbiltty of allegory'

It ls the closed quallty of PaIe Fire , antithetlcal to the whole

enterprise of allegoryr that defines it as an exampl-e of late modernist

rather than postmodernl-st flctLon. Klnbote¡ 1n his preference for an

orderly cuLtural and ltterary traditlon and hls aristocratlc notions of

art, refÌects several of the val-ues and belÍefs of 'rhigh" modernÍsm.

Repeatedly, Pale Flre asserts that value should be sought 1n artr Ln a

secular llterary tradltlon, rather than in the worldi a characterls-

tlcally modernlst stance. And ft is ln thls manifest preference for a

closed or autonomous literary artifact that modernÍst texts differ most

markedly from those postmodernist forrns which are amenabLe to allegory.

In contrast to the hermetlcism of such modernist texts as þþFire is the postmodernlst tendency towards open, "inqulsltÍve' forms or

as Julia Krlsteva terms lt "the attempt to expand the slgnifiable";25

alternatively descrlbed by Phll1ipe Soll-ers as 'tthe experlence of

1lmíts".26 A= Krfsteva arguest

Let us say that postmodernlsm is that literature

whl-ch writes ltself wlth the more or less

consclous l-ntention of expanding the signifiable

and thus human t"tlt.2?

únportant to the development of a postmodernist allegorÍc forrn fs the

shift in attitude towards language that becomes apparent in this

'rlntentlon'r¡ fn comparison to modernist hermeticism; Barthrs Glles Goat-

Sg¡ and the work of Thomas P¡rnchon represent a return tot or restora-

tfon of, the referentfal dimensLon of language. These texts make

manifest the assumpti-on that language exists partf.ally as an autonomous

system, but also as a set of names whlch derlve theLr real.lty frsm out-

slde the system Ln an extrallnguLstLc realÍty.z8 So th" functlon of

Ìanguage opens to two disttnct Lnterpretatlons: lt can operate as a

ilprfsonhouse" that is lsolated - and lsolating - from realityr or Ít

can act as the means by whfch extrallngulstlc realities are dlscovered'

The texts themselves use language as a communlcation systemt using 1t

to make demands upon and ellcit responses from the reader. As has

frequently been noted, postmodernist texts characteristically attempt

to engage the reader fn the processes of readLng and writlng rather

than the facts of writer and wrftten artlfact.zg

One way in whl-ch this engagement is created 1s through the actions

of a her-o whose function is foremost as a reader: who becomes â su-

rrogate-reader. fn the manner of the traditional allegoric hero he 1s

an lnterpreter, as he confronts baslc epistemoÌogical problems that

must be approached through interpretatlon. The development of his under-

standing, prerequJ-site to flndlng a so]utlon, lnvolves an an'areness of

the mora1, ethical and religlous ramLfLcations of these llngulstlc and

cognttlve problems. Edward Mendelson attempts to define the nature of

Pynchonrs work in terr¡s of a contrast wfth the modernist example of

Ulvsses by argul.ng that in Pynchonrs fictlon, and @ in

partlcular, Ii-ngulstlc problems are never divorced from thèlr ethieal

consequences and determtnants. Because he defines quite succinctly a

maJor distinctlon between modernlst and postmodernist llnguÍstic assump-

tions, 1t ls worth quottng a passage from his essay at length.

Language for Pynchon is not a system complete 1n

Ltself but an ethlcally and soclally perforrnative

(hls word fs 'roperatlve") eystemr one whlch can be

aÌtered by dellberate acts. The model of language

in Ulysses, on the other hand, ls characterl's-

ttcal.ly self-enclosed. For Joyce, the history of

language ls1 1n effect, an embryologlcaL history

[tn the chapter known as ft0xen of the Sun")¡ a

version of an unconscious cycle unaffected by

personal or social- choice. Gravitv t s Rainbow's

history of language (in tne episode set in the

Kirghiz) is instead political, "less aware of

itself", determined by conscious decisions'

Gonsistentlyt Grav ítv's Bainbow refers outside

itself to the cluster of problems raised by

political and ethical conditionsr and insists

that "Ietting it sit for a whi'le Ís no

30COlllpfofnasê" r

such a linguistic assumption is necessary to al1egorY¡ to the

allegoric Ínvestigation into the reality of the moraL and spiritual

concepts signified by language, the adequacy of words as the temporal

sj-gns of these truths and the relation of such universals to the larger

problem of salvatlon. In comparison to modernist hermeticism' the a}Ieg-

oric attempt to represent an ultimate extralinguistlc reality - the

$lord, the ineffable @ - through íts f-inguistic and social manifesta-

tions, certainly appears to be an attempt to "expand the sÍgnifiable"'

Although she is writing only in terms of the secular, Julla Kristeva

partially describes the all-egoríc project of Giles Goat-BoY when she

writes of postmodernism as an attempt to represent

That whlch, through language, i"s part of no

perticuJ.ar language r.. That whichr through

meaning, is lnto1erabLe, unthinkeble r'r 31

The parallel ls almost complete when she tevms this a "Oantesque

prrc ject n. 32 Fo" The Divine Comedy ls among the many pretexts included

by Giles Goat-Boy !n lts system of slgnífication and, l-ike its Dantesque

pretext, Giles Goat-Boy ettempts to represent the faiLure of representa-

tion to capture either the moment of revelation or to represent the

ineffable, Gharacteristically, allegory forrnulates Truthr the transcen-

dent One, as that which ultimately escapes representation in human

language and comprehenslon within the terms of human cognition. Dante's

is, in fact, the archetypaÌ experience when, in his final approach to

God, all the means of representation fail him:

ma non eran c1ò proprle pennet

se non che Ia mla mente fu percossa

da un fulgore ín che sua voglia venne.

A 1'a1ta fantasla qui mancò possa;

ma già volgera il mio dlsio e '1 y5fþr

si come rota ch'igualmente è mossa,

I'amor che move il sole e lraltre stelle. J.J

The fundamental contradiction wÍthin the allegoric project lies in

the attempt to articulate ths atemporally true through a temporal mode

of representatlon. fnevitably, this ultlmate Truth eludes any specifi-

city in formul-ation or descrlpiion. As a consequence, allegory is

oblíged to deaL with intermediary realities; such 'ínvisibles' as divine

intelligences, forces within the human psycher ideal essences or

Pl-atonj-c ldeas, all of whlch are of the same kind as Truth though exist-

ing on more accessible planes. As such, they function as the signs or

manifestations of an ul-timate reality whÍch is their Ínformlng princÍple,

a irtranscendental signifierrr which i" roi fully revealed in a true

signifylng relatlonship between the word, perceived reality and dlvinity

(ttre Wora); such a relationship as that outllned in AugustÍnian terrns

early ln the,chapter. ft 1s here that the lmportance of the pretext to

allegory emerges i because 1t ls assumed to articulate the sacred through

its language, and to reveal just such a figural pattern in realltyr the

pretext vall-dates any slmilar synthesls achieved by the allegorj-c narr-

ative through the'discovery of a single, transcendent, signifying center

in language and the events of hlstory. Because 1t establlshes the

cuLturally accepted "visualisatlon'r of the sacred¡ within the narrativet

the pretext gains the readerrs assent to the accuracy of the narrativers

approachtoTruth.fn@'wi11isgrantedavisionofChr1st'

the dlvlne intermediary between God and man; 1n Book I of The Faerie

gggry, the Red cross Knlght vtews the New Jerusalem, but is permitted

only to gaze upon the blessed souls; he Ls able neither to enter the

city nor to Look directly upon the godhead. It is onLy through intermed-

iaries that they know Truth: Will through a dlvlnely unifled linguistlc

system, Redcrosse through the figural pattern of history. It Ís the

sacred pretext whlch¡ l-n both cases, intimates to the reader the nature

of the divlne force whfch l-s thus partially revealed¡ So the prlmary

function of the pretext fs to act as ån interface between the events of

the narrative and a sacred reaftty which exlsts outside of the

representatlonal capacJ-ty of the narrative.

However, the characterlstl-c pretext employed by allegory - whilst

1t1stheBlb].e-spec1fl-ca11'y1s@ortheApoca1-ypse.This

should not be surprislng¡ allegory concerns itself wÍth the defin:i-tlon

of salvatf-on; the social, cognLtlve and lingulstic problems that adhere

to this; and seeks to f-mpress upon lts reader the urgency of a cholce.

But allegory manifests two contrastLng responses to thls concept of

Apocal¡pse. 9@@!1þ, I1ke earlíer aIÌegories - The Faerl-e Sueene

is an exanple - deals with the ' tnltiaL stages of the Apocalypse: the

advent of the AntlchrJ-st, the pertod of the Breat TribulatJ.on¡ later

accompanf-ed by the second comlng of ChrLstr or the emer¡gence of a

symbolJ.c Chrl-st-flgure. The consequent conflict heralds the mÍllenlumt

the era of the l¡iessLanlc Kingdom on earth. But the open-ended character

of the narratlves always lmplles that the opposltl-on'of such fundamental

forces has not ceased permanently, that Satan may be loosed agaÍn¡ and

34that the Apocalypse may weLl be nlgh. Piers Plowman. however , is fess

optirnistic about the splritual fate of humanity: in its concluslon

Satan is once agaLn set loose but this takes place ln the narratfve

present rather than at some tmplLed future moment. Llodern'' allegoryt

whLchr dlsplays a qualified confidence in the mediatlng power of the

pretext, sheres the pesslmLsm of Piers Plowman. The concept of hurnanity

succumbed to satanLc rule is reallsed in Pynchonrs postmodernlst alleg-

ories which shift the apocalyptic focus of the plot from the signs of

Truth to those of Evil. And it is from this displacement of focus that

the primary modifLcations made to the generic structure of alLegory

proceed.

The nature of the conflicting forces stil] is made apparent

through the workrs pretextual antecedents. But postmodernist allegory

must come to terms with the process of historlcal devaluatlon whlch'has

undermlned the authorfty of the anterlor, pretextual narratÍve. Qlfgg

Goat-Bov accommodates ltself to this situation by includÍng many pre-

texts and, by a carefuL modulatlon of parodlc, cor¡ic and serious eI-

ements¡ adapts them to their conventlonal allegoric 'function¡ Pynchonrs

narratl-ves, are more sceptfoal of the possLbtlLty of such accommodation.

Thelr herro/lnes are confronted wf.th rnysterlous signs, historical !!g-ggr the meaning, the epJ.stemologl.cal and ontologJ.cal status of whLch

are aLl unoertal-n. Gonsequently, they are compelled to search for an

authorLtatlve rtext", a valld Ínterpretatlon of reall.ty whlch wl-ll

establlsh a coherent system of signlficatLon. So whl"lst a series of

localLsed meanings emenger glvlng the @, - be lt V., the TrLstero

or the Rocket - a vague generallsed signf.ftcance, Lts status wfthin an

eterna!. flgural deslgn cannot be ascertalned, absolutely. Bonald

Sukenlck elaborates upon the lmpllcations of such a sltuatf.onr clafming

that ln a world from which God, as author¡ has wLthdrawnr the plot of

history is unknown and finally unknowable; without the sanction of the

author, the authenticlty of any received version of reallty cannot be

verlfied; time ceases to be purposlve and destl-ny gives way to chance'S

Thls argtnnent may well be based upon an l-ntentional falLacy but such

are the general conditlons of Pynchonrs "world". Yet the sfngle pretext

shared by aLl- allegorlo narratives - Ery9þ!þ1 - Ls employed here also'

And fmpllcit 1n the very conditlon of this "fallenr world ls the

suggestion that God has not¡ in fact, withdrawn¡ but rather that the

pervasive, corrupting lnfluence of the Antichrist - which attacks all

coherent systems of signlficatlon, of cognJ-tl-on, of interpretatlon' -

has simply yet perhaps irredeemably obscured all temporal traces of

Truth. Withln thls apocalyptl-c context, the function of the alLegoric

narretLve is to attempt to retrLeve and to reconstftute these figural

traces, to vfvlfy the narratlvers verbal signs'

B¡t the dfsplacernent of narratlve focus from the forces of Truth

to those of Evil-, whích {s nanifest ln modern apocalyptic forms¡

requires that a cogespondlng modifl-catfon be made to the figural base

of allegoryr Thls ls, 1n fact; the maJor modLflcation made to the gene-

rlc structure of allegory and one whLch has far-reachlng structural

consgquencesr But fit should not be thought that thls shift in focus

denies the allegorlc natune of the narratfves. Truth and Evil are of

the same E!¡g!, though qulte dlfferent fn,:their temporal manifestaticins.

And thls Ls the crux of the problem whlch such a development poses tor

allegoric flgural.lsm r

As I have pointed out, conventl.onal figurall-sm seeks some coher-

ent slgnl-fylng relationshlp between realns of beLng wlthin a proViden;

tlalj scheme¡ a common source of all temporal signs tm the ìlord. As a

consequence of the hLstorLcal devaLuatlon of pretextual authorf-tyr the

hermeneutic distance whlch separates Pynchonrs narratl'ves from thelr

pretextual antecedent - Revelatl-on - ls expanded. Although the two

klnds of text exlst ln paral}e}, it is only an oblique reÌationship

that is establlshed between them. The onus 1s placed entlrel-y with the

reader to make the Lnterpretatlve 'rleap" whlch will make a coherent

signifying reLationshlp explicit. But the necessity that the reader

make a signlficant response - that a private authority be conferred

upon the pretext and the free play of narratf-ve signs be 'rcentered" f'n'

a correspondence between the textual sign and some invislble, spfritual

reality - has become more urgent. The context wlthLn which thls demand

is made has changed character: lt is no longer merely the contingentt

1t 1s the Apocal-¡pse. And the difflcul-ty of maklng such a response

lncreases 1n proportlon to its urgency.

The prlmary effect of thls apocaLyptlc context is to underrnine

the very basÍc assumptions of figural lnterpretation. Figurallsm assumes

that temporal signs exÍst as aspects of a spirltual: pstterm that Is

revealed through tlme. So time functLons as both the pnogressive

manifestatlon of thfs atemporal and omnltemporal pattern¡ and as the

medium of revelatf-on. But lt is the historical llggg, whJ-ch'give

temporal form to the timeless and act as the signs of it - as obJects

of knowledge 1n thel-r own rlght - that are the immedLate obJects of

flgural Lnterpretatl-on. For if lnterpreted correctly¡ these slgns are

assumed to yleld true, though necessarlly partial¡ knowledge of the

dlvine senlotlc patternr A figural hermeneutlc draws these sÍgns lnto a

slgnlfying relatlonshLp wl-th the transcendent pattern - the "transcenden-

tal slgnlflern - by resf-gnlfylng them¡ drawing out a latent metaphoric

reference so that they encompass a 1ltÞral and spfrftual signlffcance.

In thfs way, the natune of the spLrit which infonns verbal meaning -

lggr the Wbrd - Ls revealed; Just ae lt l-s revealed in figuralLy

sfgnlficant historical events. But tt fs the development of an 'inner

word'r, or the Pl-atonLc "writtng on the soul'rr that presents such a mode

of perceptLon to the aJ-legorf-c hero. He must possess the necessary

understanding and deslre ln order to perceive temporal signs as the

figurae of external spirltual reallties and interior spirituatr statest

and to percelve hl-s own self l-n relation to a pnovidentlal system. As

we shall discover, many of Pynchon's hero/ines never progress beyond

the stage of developlng thfs self-knowledge. Elther as the result of a

wilfuÏ refusal to accept that which they flnally percelve - as FlÞrbert

Stencll does - or because they can never finally be sure that the

percef.ved pattern exl-sts obJectively in reality rather than as a subJec- I

tlve proJectfon of the n1nd, a paranoia - as ís Oedipa's dilemma - these I

characters do not achieve a figural revel-atlon: that burden is the

readerrs aIone.

However, the dlfficulty of such an undertaking arlses from the

very nature of the spJ-ritualJ forces they confront. The archetypal fig-

ural slgn is Ghrist - the Word made flesh - whose figure reveals the

begf.nnlng and end of Christlan time, from'the FalI to the New Jerusalem;

whase career figures forth the sJ-gnlflcance of history and the ultimate

destínyofthesouf'poÍnt1ngthewaytosa1vation.@and

The Faerie Queene represent Ghrist as such, as the transcendental sig-

nlfler of history and l-anguage. But the flgural experiences of Langlandb

WlI1'and Spenserrs Bed Cross Knlght are not repeated ln the varl,ous

quests of Stencll or Oed1pa, Enzlan¡ TchLtcherfne or Slothrop. For the

history fn whlch they partlcÍpate and the words which they speak are

informed, or rather mlslnformed, by the corrupting fnfluence of the

AntLchrfst. TheLrs l.s not sf-mply a faIIen, apostatlcal societyt 1t ls

the socLety ruÌed by the false Chrfst¡ they are citizens of the Great

TrlbuLationr The figurae that they percelve both give temporal form. to,

atemporal Evllt and act as the violent, decadent signs of 1t. Sor no

coherent figural system can be artLcul-ated, thts belng the very klnd of

organisation that is susceptible to satanic dlsso1utl,on. Evil is

manifest 1n the temporal world prirnarlì.y through the dlsruption of

coherent systemst socialr moral and linguistic. In l-lnguistlc systemst

1t acts to disrupt the process of s1-gnlflcatlon by diverting words from

thelr proper relatlonships of signlflcation and, by extensiont away

from the dljvtne slgnf-fier; the Word. From the resulting ambLguityt in

which concepts llke Truth and Evil lose their precise deflnitfonr a

serl"es of moral and social consequences follows. Society becomes

decadent, falls into apostasy¡ as ethical and moral concepts become

lndistinct and hazy; in figural terms, the "writJ.ng on the sou1" 1s now

lllegibIe: where once an "lnner Yvord'r woul-d be inscribed, corruptlon

now takes root, For the Anttchrist ls Just that, contradlcting every

representatlon made by Ghrlst. Rather than represent the unity of time

- as a revelatlon of the sacred - Satan manifests hlstory as the record

of violent moments and the history of civilisatfon as the accumulation

of detritus: "a latrine filling under the effects of gravitynr as one

of Pynchonts commentators has put 1t.36 Instead of revealing the signif-

icance of human ]lfe and the soulrs destiny, the AntÍchrist reveals a

void, a meaninglessness, at the cer¡ter of the "shithole of historY".3?

Satanic influences are deslgned not to redeemr the effects of the FalÌt

as are the forces of Truth, but to exaggerate and accelerate them¡

Satan brlngs not the promlse of eternal lffe but the knowledge of

certaln death, Under hls rule then¡ society is not simpLy nfaIlen",

rather ft ts deterloratlng rapldly 1n a decLine that w111 end ln

Arrnageddon.

Given thLs conceptlon of a world 1n accelerated decayr Pynchon'rs

use of the metaphor of entropy, to supplant that of the FaIl in earlier

allegorfes, 1s apposf-te. For the effects wreaked by the loosening of

Satan correspond to those produced 1n a world 1n entroplc decllne. The

analogy between the Laws of Thermodynamics and the realm of relLgÍous

experJ-ence 1s made qulte expliclt in Pynchonrs short story¡"Entropy":

... as every good Romantic knows, the soul

(spirltusr glr pneumal ls nothing,

substantlally, but air; lt 1s only natural

that warpl-ngs in the atmosphere should be

recapf-tuLated 1n those who breathe it.38

The correspondence ls made by the omniscLent narrator as he defines the

decadents¡ akin to the Whole Slck Crew of Yr who wander 1n and out of

Meatball- MullJ.gants lease-breaking party. Like atoms in the closed sys-

tem of his apartment, their movements become increasingly random, vi-

olent and formless through tfme as the energy they possess ls expended

in meaningless activity. It 1s Gallisto; however¡ who has consciously

transformed the apartment above lnto "a tiny enclave of regularity in

the cityr's chaos¡ alien to the vagarles of weather, of natÍonal politicst

of any civtll disorder"(o.ZZ9), who extends the analogy Ínto a rationale

for his blzarre forrn of existence.

The cosmologlsts had predicted an eventual

heat-death for the unlverse Isomethfng like

Limbo; form and motl-on abolishedr heat-energy

ldentical at every point ln 1t) ... [p.280).

What GaLl-lsto, l-n hl-s herrnetícaIIy sealed apartmentr does not appear to:

reaLLse ls that some forms of o¡der - whLlst perhaps l-ntended to,counter

the entroplc trend - may Ln fact accelerate 1t. For although the immed-

iate effect of entropy ls to produce chaos, this dlsorder leads flnally

to stasf.s: a stagnant order whl-ch 1s total homogenef.ty. In this Lnert

state of equfllbrlum, Bven mindLess, repetJ.tfve motion 1s l-mpossl-b1e.

All available eneygy ls not sf.mply used up - the First Law of Thermo-

dynamics states that whlle forms of energy are qualitatively transform-

able, they are quantltatlvely indestructable - but the potential diff-

erence between points !n the system ls now zeTgi energy is inconvertlble

lnto work. Calllsto can envlsl-on a slml-Iar fate for hls culturet in

which ideas can no longer be transferred and lntellectuaL motlon w1l1

ceaser Translated ínto soclal terms, entropy meeggres such an J'ncapacity

for fresh perception, for Ldeas to be translated into a ne$/ idiom. Witl-ì-

in the narrative, this ls the style of Meatball's pseudo-intellectual

guests, who adopt one cúItura1 mode after another - its eustomst

cuisine, language - but never invent anythlng nBw or unlque; whereas

Gall-l-sto slmply repeats the same events of the dayt every day. Such

"orderllness" as hls is conducive to entroplc decay, which tends to

deve3-op frr:m a sltuation of the least probable to that of the most prob-

able; forms and dlstlnctlons dissolve into a chaos which emerges finally

as a letharglc sameness.

The entropic dissolution of distinctions poses obvíous probl"Bms

to lnterpretation and the efficacy of language: the one based upon a

set of assumed relatíonships between the sign, lts slgnifier and its

obJect of reference; the other based upon a system of dlffer€ñce¡ Gon-

sequently, Pynchon draws upon the signlficance of the concept of entropy

as it figures !n information theory. Informational entropy measures the

dlsorder, or probabfllty, within a ftessâger Tnprobabillty ensures that

a maxlmum amount of lnforrnation ls communicated¡ so entropy lncreases

wlth probabf.l!-ty. Therefore, as thermodynamic entropy increases the

homogeneity of a system, the anount of sLgnLflcant fnformatLon avaLlable

about it ls dlminlshed. So, as l,lulllgah's party progressesr the volwne

of 'nolse*, or lnforrnatlonal dlsorder, that lt produces reaches a

nsustaÍned, ungodly crescendot'(p.281)¡ The concept of "noLse" is lntro-

duced to the narratlve by SauI, who responds to lleatbal-lrs suggestion

that misLnterpretatLon 1s often the result of a tlanguage barrler'r thus¡

No, ace, 1t 1s g! . barrler. If Ít 1s anything

itrs a kind of ]-eakage. TelL a girL: "f 1ove

you". No trouble wlth two-thlrds of thatr l-trs

a cÌosed clrcutt. Just you and she. But that

nasty four-letter word ln the mlddler thatrs

the one you have to Look out for. Ambigulty.

Redundgnce. Irrelevancer even. Leakage. All this

fs nofse. NoÍse screws up your signalr makes

for disorganization 1n the circult (p'285)'

The Duke dl Angells quartet attempts to overcome the threat of leakage

and noise by performing without lnstruments, forming a closedt psychíc

circult. Of course, nothlng ls transmitted. ThÍs is an informational

analogue to Cal-llstors response to thermodynamlc entropy; in both Dases

an extreme response has the same ultimate effect as submitting to the

threatenlng forces. Calllstors mistress, Aubade, percelves the world

entirely in aural- terms¡ her Ilfe a constant battle with 'rnoíse'¡ as she

tries to sustain an equillbrium between order and disorderr a constant

,,signa1-to-nol-se ratLot'. Aubade functions as a klnd of "Maxwellrs Demon"

sorting ellernents l-nto an order whLch maintaLns a potential dLfference

between then¡ the dlfferentlatlon whlch resLsts the entropic pressure

towands homogeneity. But the flaw in l,laxwellrs theory, the fact that

such sortlng constitutes work and so expends energyr finaLly defeats

Aubade also¡ through physf.cal and intellectual exhaustl-on¡ The death of

a small btrd 1n the hot-house apartment and Calllstors failure to

communl-cate any warmth to ft, coupled wlth the constancy of the tem-

perature, reveals the futtllty of thel-r lsolation as protection from the

encroaching lnfì-uence of entropi. Calllsto Ls paralysed by what he

percei.ves-to be nomens of apocaì-¡pse"(p.280), but Aubade, t'as 1f seelng

the slngle and unavofdable concrusLon of all this"(o'zsz)¡ breaks a

wlndow, shatterLng the hermetic seal of the apartment

.. . and turned to face the nan': on the bed

and wait wlth hlm untll the moment of

equfJ-lbrlum ryas reached, when 37 degrees

Fahrenhelt should prevall both outside and

lnsf-de, and forever, and the hoverlngt

curlous dornlnant of their separate Lives

should resolve into a tonlc of darkness and

the final absence of all motlon [p.292).

Meatball Mulligan too is obliged to make a choice in response to the

increaslng lnfluence of entropy. As the oarty degenerates lnto a motlve-

less brawl, Meatbsll realises that he can either Lock himsel-f away until

evaryclne leaves, or attempt to quleten each individuaÌ. Like Aubader l¡e

chooses confrontatlon and involvement rather than isoLation' She brings

CallLstors 'rhothouse of the past" into relatlon wlth present reality

and, like Meatbal-I¡ recognises thus flexibllity and openness as valid

anti-entropic gestures. For ln an openì system, there remaÍr¡s the poss-

tbiltty that entropy wilI not lncrease and may in fact spontaneously

decrease, Ln an rrenclave of llfet; but thls posslbllity remains only as

long as the system resl.sts the pressure towards closure and equilfbrl.um.

In a cLosed system, the only counter to a steady entrop$c decllne ljs

the lnJectlon of new energy from an' external souroer In cultural¡

rellglous, terrns thLs would arnount to a miracle - perhaps the adveñt of

a Christ-ff.gure - for 1f the unLverse actúally Ls a closed system¡ the

only realm fr.om which sueh onergy could orlûLnate 1s the realm of super-

naturer of the spf.rft. But the lnfluence of Satan¡ in this contextt

wor.ks from wlthLn the clobed,system, acceleratlng its entropic decline

and exaggerating its lntermedLate effects.

Pynchonrs synthesls of thermodynamlc and religiotls concepts is

ce:rtainly not unique; from the míd-nlneteenth century the re1lgf-ous

implicatlons of the Laws of Thermodynamlcs have been debated.39 Tf,"

First Law, the law of the conservatl-on of energyr gave grounds to marry

schofars for the argr.ment that God 1s manffest in the world through

modes of energy or force; that the economy wlth which ñature has been'

created - so that although forms of energy may be transformedt energy

itself cannot be destroyed - 1s evLdence of an omnipnesent and omnl-

potent Deity. To take an example: Herbert Spencer formulated a-whole

mystfcaL phÍlosophy on the basis of the Flrst Law of Thermodynamicst

expressed in hls First Princ le's of a New Svstem of PhilosoPhy (reoz),

Spencer argued that scLence and rellgf.on corresponil Ín their asslmila-

tlon of the forces of matter and spirit, inferring from the data of

experience the exlstence of "fnfinite and Eternaf Energyr from which all

things proceed'r, sharing the "consclousness of an fncomprehensÍhile

Omnlpotent Power'r - an "Absolute Being"'40 So"n"er further argued that

the power manifest by the universe, the cause of phenomenal existence,

ls lnscrutfble and finally unknowable: only the naws of its manifesta-

tion can be inferred experlentially. 0f course Spencer, and many of his

fellow scholars, assumed that this lneffable power was a supreme Good;

an assumptJ-on apparently contradl,cted by the $econd Law: the 1aw of

entropy. The concept of an lrreversible process in hlstoryr of decay

and dissolutÍon as a functlon of tlme, contradLcted any meaningful

phllosophy of the relatlon between naturç and mårrb man and God. Yet the

predictf.on of a heat-death for the unl-verse was translated into the

Ghrfstlan concept of perdltfon, wlthLn the context of the Bl-blefs

promf-se of eternal Llfe rather than lnflnite temporal þrogress, So the

Second LEw of Thermodynamlcs was seen as postng a basic choLce to man:

GhrÍstlan redemptJ.on or annLhlIatlon.

For if the Flrst Law posited the exlstence of absolute Good, or

Truth¡ so its contradlctory partner lmplied the exlstence of Evilr an

absolute force operatlng in time and leading hlstory ever closer to

perdítlon. Henry Adamst ln his Educatlon ( a text often referred to bY

Pynchon's narratlves)¡ åssUrIes such a temporal progression'

Satisfied that the sequence of men led to

nothing and that the sequence of their society

could lead no further, while the sequence of

time was artificlal, and the sequence of thought

was chaos, he turned at. last to the sequence of

force; and thus it happened that¡ after ten years

pursult, he found himself lytng in the Ballery

of Machlnes at the Great ExposJ.tion of 1900r hJ-s

historical neck broken by the sudden irruptlon of

forces totally new. .. r (fney) were occu3-t,

supersensual, irrational; they were a revelation

of mysterious energy like that of the Grossi they

were what, in terms of mediaeval scfencer were

calLed lmmedlate modes of divine substance.4l

The goddess, the Virgin, and the dynamo share one slngle characteristlc

- force. But whereas the Vlrgin possessed a great creative forcer as

evinced by the cathedrals of Glrartres and Lourdes, the power possessed

by the "anfmated dynano" ls qulte other..And Pynchon comblnes Adams'

"dynamo-Vlrgln" with the force of entropic Evll to produce thB Lady V.

CHAPTER TWO

VAGILLATING IN THE VOID? VERBAL VIVTFIGATION IN V.

The very title of y evokes the question: what or who is V.?

Although it is not explicltly formulated untÍl- much later, this problem

forms the exegetical context for the entj-re narrative. It nframesn the

opening scene, set ln Virginia, in the vicinity of the "Sailorrs Grave'l

.rr overhead, tr:rning everybody's face green

and ug1y, shone mercury-vapor l-ights, receding

in an asymmetrlc V to the east where itrs dark

and there are no *or" bar=.I

ft is through such a street, illumlnated by V, - the "street of the 20th

Gentury"(p.323) - that the quest for nheri signÍficance 1eads. V exists

as a narrattve; as an historical figure, the Lady V.; and as a prolif-

erating number of V.-structures or V.-signs which are perceptible in

the narrative worLd, such as these V-lights. And the three elements

share a common base in the quest for V,, for the genesis or etj-oIogy of

the twentieth century - for its presiding genius. The narrative and the

quest are vfrtually Ídentlcal, united in the attempt to discover the

meaning and history of V. through the temporal- manlfestations of the

Lady V¡ and of seemingly lncidental V-signs, But the relationshfp

between the narrative and its quest-structure Ís one of only virtuaf

ldentification; A rhetorlcal gap 1s sustalned between the two rtextsr

so that whLlst a character IÍke Hugh Godolphfn or Raphael Mantissa may

conceive of V, - as Vheissu or Venus - as a type of voidt a "gaudy

dream¡ a dream of annihilation"[p.210), the ongbing development of the

narrative plot is dlrected towards the construction of a figural system

in which V. is the prfmary flgura and obJect of interpretation. That

Is, whiLst many of its characters are left vacillating in an existen-

tial void, the narratÍve itseli attempts to vivify its verbal signsr to

discover amid the various slgnificatÍons of v' a slgnifyÍng center

which would be the ispirlt't lnforming modern', history, giving it patternt

significance and direction.

Like the "Street", V. rs status Ís that of a metaphor. However,

the rtenorsr to the rvehícLei that is V. Br@ so variousr their ontolo-

gical and eplstemological status so ambiguous, as to pose the classic

allegoric question concerning the capacity of language to slgnify extra-

llteral- or metaphorÍc truths and to question the existence of an interp-

retative structure whlch would make such truths apparent. The source of

thÍs uncertainty is located primaril-y in the nature and functÍon of V,

As an historlcal entity, she 1s frequently associated with misínterp-

retatÍon, misunderstanding, misrepresentatlon, and politically vrith

cross-purposes, mistranslation and falsification. This is particularly

the case 1n chapter seven, "She Hangs on the $lestern Wa11"' The arnbiv-

alence surrounding the identity of thls 'she" is reflected in the narr-

ative, in the confusion between Mantissers plan to steal Bottlcelli.rs

Birth of Venus, the activitles of his feLl-ow-conspirator the Gauchor a

Venezualan anarchist, the mislnterpretation of GodolphÍnrs Vheissu as

the code-name for Venezuala or even Vesuvius¡ and the uncertaín ínvolve-

ment of the spy Vogt. Gognitive confusion such as this ín the realm of

politics and internatlonal esplonage, transl-ated into socÍaI action',

resuLts in r1ot, viol-ence and death; a "faÍr of violent death"(p.20g),

which is contemplated by an "enchanted" Victoria Wren. The uncertain

status of V. is al-so a result of rher{ function, which is curiously

akin to that of a personlfication figr¡re' For in v' the sígnifier and

the signified - name and IE or referentLal object - are so closely

ldentifi.ed as to become one, so that rshen becomes almost purely a sÍg-

nifler, and throughout the namative the range of signification of thls

single lnttial- or sign is explored in a number of contexts and through'

different lnterpretattve structures. Many personalÍtiesr conceptst

thlngs, comprlse her system of slgnifJ.catlon - Victorl.a Wren, Veronica

Manganese, Vera Merovlng, Veronlca the rat, Venusr vj-olencer veneryt

the list could go on - each l-s deflned by V., but does not define V.

These signs or avatars of V. are each a partlal "truth" whichr taken

together ln a conventional figural structure, would perrnit valldr if

partLal, knowledge of the "invlsible" or spiritual realíty which V,

makes manifest. Each sign, interpreted in terms of an Lmmanent semlotic

pattern and resLgnifled so as to dLsclose a latent metaphoric signif-

l-cance, in addition to lts llteral meaning, would then reveal tne nature

of the spirit which lnforms verbal meanÍng, and the events of history:

the "transcendental signiffer",

However, such a flgural desJ-gn ls not consummated in V: lt exists

in the structure of the narretlve but, l-n terms of the development of

the plot, ls foreshortened - as is "Rappaccinirs Daughter". And 1i'ke

Hawthorners narrartlve, V compels the reader to complete the flgural

pattern in ways I shaIl dlscuss 1n the final chapt'er. A possible reason

for thLs incompleteness has been offered by Thomas Schaubr although he

does not use the terminology of allegory Ín his discussion of Pynchonrs

narratlves. Scharjb descrlbes the basLc opposftÍon in Pynchonrs fiction

as a confllct between some four-dÍmenslonal world of continuous mean-

ing.-..a space-time contlnuum - and the temporal, human world of

fragmentary experience and necessarily partLal perceptlon - a three-

dlnenslonal worLd. The diÌemma whlch confr.onts the characters who inhab-

it such a world 1s that whllst 1t ls experlenced in three dimensÍons 1t

is known in four, and consequently any contlnulty of meaning Ls known

ln abstract ternrs and experlenced only 1n susplclons. Any integratlon

therefore ts expressed ln lmagistlc terms - as abstractlons gÍven tem-

poraL form - but this very process of temporalizing precludes the

possibÍIity of perceiving a timeless unity. As Schaub claims, the quest

is problematized by the very attempt to discover the meaning of the

world from within the worId, or to find within time a true history that

exists outside tiine.2 l-le aÌso argues that a sense of unity does exist

within this fictional wor}d, but no confirmation of it is givent

creatlng the susplcj.on that it 1s withheld because it remafns unnamed.

However, the atternpt to name, amid the compLexitles of the act of

naming, in a postlapsarian, -entropic world is the ongoing effort of

Pynchon's hero/ines. in WlLl-iam PLater's words, the

.. ! testimony of the word remains the

dilemma of reconcillation with God ort

central-

absence, perceptible forces of destiny"

in his-)

V. appears as one suchr rperceptible force of destiny'r; but is also

suggestive of a hj-gher, ineffable force, whích woul-d be of the same

kind as þqE, yet is radfcally iotherr in its temporal manifestations

and consequences.

The problem of V. is analogous to that presented by Dowel - the

central p r^obLem of Piers PLowrnan' And l-Íke Dowel' V' cannot be

approached or known directly, but instead, through a serj.es of constit-

utive isub-categorlesr or ikey wordsi. As we have seen, in the case of

Piers PLournan, Will Iearns the meaning ol 'rkynde" and of "kynde

knowyrge,, as a cognitive mode; the rel-ationshlp between Jesur Jesus and

Ghrist; and between Dobet and Dobest, before he knows Dowel as a type

or figure of lgggr EFd the function of these key concepts fulftlled as

signs or aspects of the llord. There is no singl-e hero of V: lilÞrbert

Stencil and Benny Profane are both, in different ways, questers. But it

is the narrative itself whlch explores a number of concepts which

together apparently comprise V. And several of these key concepts are

introduced in the first chapters, in the first of a series of episodes

concerning Benny Profane (bene æ&8, thorrcughly secularA) ana nis

affiliation with a group of New York pseudo-bohemians known as the

Whole Sick Crew.

To a considerabl-e extent, the initj-al sequences of the narrative

deal with Profane's reminiscences; a number of vj-gnettes presented Ín

flash-back whlch are, in effect, varlatlons on the theme of the inan-

imate domÍnating or annexlng the animate. The vrhole pr-ob1em of humanity

and how it may be defined, of which thís is but one aspect, is addressed

explicitly later in the narrative. Bùt initially this increasing ascen-

dancy of a non-human principle is analyzed'as a symptom; a symptom of a

disease that is progressiveLy diagnosed as, or identified with, V' The

sailor, Ploy, is the first character to faII victim to this diseaset

having his teeth forcibly removed and repl-aced with a fa1se, U.S.Navy

regulation, set. It ls amld the comÍc, aLmost slapstick, tone of his

story that the narratorial observatíon is made that after his operation

Ploy "saw apocalypse"(p.11J. Thls is the flrst suggestion that the

approprlation of the animate by the falseLy animate or inanimate may be

linked with the lmminence of apocal-)rpser In the "sailor's Grave", the

debased status of the hurnan is represented by the phenomenon known as

'rSuck Hour'r in which sailors are "given suck by a beer tap"[p.I3J, in

the guise of a large foam rubber breast. More significant, however, is

the debased conditj-on of language as a referential medium, which appears

in the common name shared by aII of the barmaids who work there. The

over-signiflcatlon of the name, creating a kínd of entroptc homogeneityt

reduces its referentlal value to nothing by eliminating the element of

difference, the structurlng principle whlch makes any language functÍon-

a1ly significantr

"ITho did he getr" Profane said. "I wasnrt Iooking."

"BeatrÍce¡ " sald Beatrice. Beatrice being

another barmaíd [p.12).

The influence of the inanimate is, in many instances, a tendency

towards this kind of sameness, which causes natural difference to be

replaced by manufactured homogenei-ty.

In characterÍstically allegoric fashíon, such social manifesta-

tions of the inanimate principle are causally linked to a linguistic

condition; Ín this caser to the inaninatl-on of language, to'the prepon-

derance of nouns over verbs and the corresponding shift in percepti-on

that this entaÍIs. Profane discovers the existence of such an inanimate

vocabulary as an element of the phenomenon of human love for an object.

Alt¡ough this realization 1s made primarily in terms of hi-s encounter

with Rachel Owlglass and her LrlG, it is cor:robörated by the relati-onship

between Pig Bodine and his motorcycle, and Da Conhors attachment to his

machine gun. All are instances of the mechanical supplanting the hunan

as the 'other,,in emotional and, particularly in Bachel-rs casen'sexual

relationships. But further, BacheI is significantly defined in MG-terms;

Profanets communication with her occurs within a context limitedr both

physically and cognitively, by an object-centered discourse.

They tal-ked in the car always, he trying to

fÍnd the key to her own ignition behind the

hooded eyes, she sitting back of the right-

hand steerÍng wheel and talking, talkingt

nothing but MG-words, inanimate-words he

couldnrt really talk back at. ..r He never got

beyond or behind the chatter about her worl-d -

one of obJects coveted or valuedr an

atmosphere Profane couldn't breathe {p.2?).

But this is the atmosphere in which the lflho1e Sick Crew exist, their

'naturalr habitat¡ and the quality that defines Rachel as a member,

albeit peripheral,

R.W.B.Lewis locates a possible source for this label in the

phrase "the whole slnful crew", colned by Michael VJigglesworth to

describe an apostatical humanity.S If tf,i= Ís so, the transforrnation

from "sinful" to "sick" cÌear1y identifies this 'rcrew" as a group which

has succumbed to the V.-disease. Gertainly, the symptoms are apparent.

Even their party is characterized in mechanical terms; it does not

develop or progress, but

rr. as if it were inanlmate after all, unwound

like a cl-ockts mainspring ...r seeking some

easing of its own tension, some equilibrÍum (p.52).

Fergus Mixolydian, doyen of the Crew, is a living extension of hís TV

set; the motor function of his nervous system is J-inked tot and so

communicates with, the TV by meåns of a "sLeep switch", surgically

implanted in his arm, so that the set turns on and off according to his

levels of awareness. But conscious awareness, in terms of the Crew, is

scarce]y dlstinguJ-shable from unconsciousness. They share a lethargyr a

kind of fln de slècLe Bomantic idecadencei , which fs another of V. rs

key words.

The pattern would have been famlliar - bohemiant

creative¡ arty - except that Lt was even further

removed from reality, Romanticism in lts furthest

decadence; beÍng only an exhausted impersonation

of poverty, rebeLtlon and artistic "souL". For it

was the unhappy fact that most of them worked for

a living and obtained the substance of their

conversatlon from the pages of Time magazine

and like Publications IPP.56-5?)'

The abuse of language that underlies this decedence is perhaps best

illustrated by s1ab, the "catatonic Expressionist" painter, whose work

represents i,,the ultimate in non-cornmunication"r(p.56). The Grew share

also a predeliòtion for nouns which they simply shíft into different

combinations to constitute a conversation' Yet a distinction between

kinds of nouns is provided by Paola MaJistral-, the girl who deals only

with proper nouns: "Persons, places' No thÍngs' Had anyone told her

about things?,,(p.51). tt is an important distinction; 'Rachel, the Crew

member with whom we have, thus far, the greatest tamiJ'iarity, realizes

that she deals with nothing but things' The Grew' ln @' treat people

and places is if they were, in fact, óbjects and, for Bachel, the most

recent dilemma posed by an object is Esther's nose'

Surgical prosthesis, as in the case of Fergus. ',Sleep switch'. end

Estherrs nose, establlshes a further and expliclt devel0pment in the

tendency towards the inanfmate. This bodily incorporation of inorganic

matter is to become one of V'rs most obvious signs' Rachelrs confronta-

tion with thc plastio surgeon schoenmaker recalls Ployts comic encoun-

ter with "apocal¡pse", but now the process is rationalized and argued

in terms of an historÍcal prlncipl-e. Schoenrnakerrs justification of his

professlon is based upon the assumptlon,that surgical prosthesis is a

matter of purel-y physlcal transfo¡mation - that the physical and psych-

ologfcal- or spirltual are discrete realms, with no interaction between

them. so the ,,grand unbroken chaln,,[p.a8) of inherlted characterlstics

remains unbroken despite indlvidual lncursions made by such as he'

Rachel objects to this argument by suggesting that a psychological

chain of inherited attltudes exists whlch are vulnerabLe to change

according to physical transformation. Such a notion of interdependence

between "inside" and "outside" is rejected by Schoenmaker, a character

who is clearly aligned with the V.-attitude or even V.-metaphysic. This

attitude is based upon an obvious preference for external appearance

over internal oreal-ity[r for manufactured, conventional beauty of the

kind constructed by the image-making lndustries of tel"evision and filmt

advertising and magazines, over natural Ímperfection. This preference

for "skin'r rather than'rsoul fi, as it is later expressed, is more fu1Iy

explored Ín terms of the "tourist'r phenomenon. Like touristsr "the

lovers of skins"[p.184), the imperfect gathered in Schoenmaker's

waiting-room constitute one of the few forms of "communionrt to be found

in this V.-dominated world. In fact, I'communJ-on", with its variety of

definitions, is another of Vrs important key words. Rache1 perceives in

thís group of the physicaLly imperfect and even grotesque "what she

feared was a sort of drawing-together or communion"[p.49). It is a

communion based upon a common faith in, and preference for, the cosmetic

and the exterlor. That such an unbalanced attitude is linkedr in some

wayr to the erosion of whatever exists internalLy, the psychological

and spiritual, is obvious in Estherfs case. She has no personal integ-

rity, no force of will; her life is a series of dependences upon others

who will direct her life for her. She is a passive victimr like Profane

aimlessl-y wanderingr'or iather 'ryoyoihg"r uP and down the "street of the

20th century"r subject only to the influence of "Fortune".

Stencil characterlzes the whole 'rSick Grew" in these terms, so

that Esther's (non)experlence becomes symptomatic of a much farther

reaching condition,

Perhaps the only reason they survivedr Stencil

reasoned, was that they were not alone. God

knew how many more there were with a hothouse

sense of time, no knowledge of lifer and at

the mercy of Fortune [p.57).

The t'many more'r who share thls "hothouse sense of tímet'we will encoun-

ter fn the historically reconstructed sections of y. For this rrhothouseI

together with the "Street" comprise the two v.-timescales explored in

the narrative, and so are two key concepts in the attempt to define V.

One is founded upon a nostalgíc conception of time, of history as a

cycl-icaI repetition of the past: the "hothouse" l-s the assumption that

time Ís static, without progress or change, and that the past exists

onl-y to be relived in the hermetic medium of memory. The'rStreet"¡ how-

ever, as a psychologlcal attituder. is predicated on the idea that time

is l-lnear¡ that the present exists as a functlon of the future and con-

sequently that time must be devoted to the realization of dreams of the

future. The "street'r is therefore a place of political revolutiont of

violent opposition to the present order and of death. Both time-schemes,

which are later said to be reconciled in V., thus constitute a rejec-

tÍon of the present, of the lived moment or 'rreal timert in favor of

illusions, memories and dreams. So the inhabitants of the 'rhothousel' and

of the 'rstreet'r, the plryslcally imperfect or unacceptabfe and the

tourist share a common opposition to what is, conceptualized in terms

of a soulless communion that ís in some way related to V. Rachel toys

with the idea of such a V.-like time structure whil-st contemplating the

elaborate cLock that ornaments Schoenmakerrs offíce. Stie watches its

danclng lmps or demons refLected in a mi"ror to one side of, her, and

dancing in ¡reaLityr on the otherr and wonders

Were there many such reference polnts, scattered

through the wor1d, perhaps only at nodes like

this room which housed a transient populatlon of

the imperfect, the dissatisfied; did real

time plus virtual or mirror-time equal zero

and thus serve some haLf-understood moral

purpose? Or was it only the mirror world that

counted; only a promise of a kind that the

inward bow of a nose-bridge or a promontory of

extra cartilage at the chin meant a reversal

of iL1 foftune s.rch that the worLd of the

aLtered would thenceforth run on mÍrror-time;

work and love by mirror-light and be only '. n

an imprs dance under the centuryrs own

chandel-iers (p.46J .

Stencilts quest i-s, in a sense, the attempt to articulate such a

"mirror world" of "mirror-time" from the vantage of present or "real

tÍme"; to hold the two j-n such a balance that would be the historical

equivalent of Sidney Stencilts poli-tica1 'rreal present"{p.468 j¡ a kind

of trGolden Mean ", and which would reveal the relationship betv"een the

two time zones. In fact, the tlnirror'r image of time is picked up and

juxtaposed with Herbert Stencil's ftdeclarationrr of his quest"

That Stencil was born at the turn of the century, "in time to be

the centuryrs child"(p.52), and raised motherless, suggests that he is

in search of a mbther figure, and that he interpr-ets accondfngly

Sf.dneyrs cnucial Journal entry:

There is more behÍnd and inslde V. than any

of us had suspected. NOt who but what; what is

she. God grant that I may never be called upon

to write the answer, either here or ln any

official report (p.53).

vrlhilst stencil rejects the notion that he is pursuing his own mothert

inthesensethatheseekstheetiologyofthecentury,heisalsoin

search of the impersonal origin of "the centuryrs child"' His first

forty-four years apparently were spent in a condition of slothful

lethargy similar to that which afflicts the Grew. But his inertness and

aiml_ess movement on the ,,street", are replaced by the single desire to

discoverV.ParadoxícallyrtheattempttodefineV'-whichinone

aspect is the princíp1e of the Inanimate - results in the animating of

stencil. For if v. is, as r argue, the force which opposes and under-

mines the concept of system and the coherent principles upon which

definition is based, then the very attempt to define her is an act of

oppositionandonewhichisexpressedinpersonalqualitiesthatare

radically opposed to "heru characteristj.cs' We have already seen such a

situati-on,in@,inconscience'sattempttodeconstruct

Lady Meed through definition, And. just as peacefuÌ, unwitting coexÍst-

ence with Meed entails a surrender to the corrupting influence of the

pun she reifies, so to live unaware in a world dominated by v' ís to

become ,rher,, unknowíng secular agentr antl to become personally dom-

inated by v, - as the members of the \\thoLe sick crew would seem to be'

so even in the initial stages of hi-s quest stencil has "this acquired

sense of animateness"(R.55), an animateness so valued that Stencil

fears it will disappear with the conclusion o1 his quest: for as long

as he actively opposes v. on a cognitive 1eveI, he will also resist the

regress into lethargy that is one of Ehertt temporal consequences'

These dual aspects of v. - the posited objective socio-historical

force and the subjective psychologica1, li¡guistíc and cognitive

manifestations - are the concern of much of the narrative reporting of

Stencil's quest; as ít attempts to establish the ontological status of

v. and an epÍstemologlcal basis for kilowledge of nhern. The first

historicaf V.-epísode of the narratlve is prefaced by the introduction

of precisely this dilemma.

As spread thÍghs to the libertiner flights of

migratory birds to the ornithologistr the

worki-ng part of his tool bit to the production

machinist, so was the letter V to young Stencil.

He would dream perhaps once a week that it had

all been a dream¡ and that now herd awakened to

discover the pursuj-t of V. was merely a schol-arly

quest after aL1, an adventure of the mindr in the

tradition of The Golden Bough or The V¡'hite Goddess.

But soon enough he'd wake up a second, real

time, to make again the tiresome discovery that

it hadn't really ever stopped being the same

simple-minded literal pursuit (p.61).

Thus the central question is posed: given the obsessional nature of the

quest, is V, a projectj-on or "adventure of the mind", a created mythol-

ogYr or does V. exist objectively, qs a real object of a "IÌiteral

pursuit" that takes pl-ace in real rather than dream time? Now this prob-

lem has been forrnuLated, in different ways, by Piers Plowman , The

Faerie Sueene "Rappaccini ts Daughter", The Gonfidence-Man and Giles

Goat-Boy: it is a characteristic allegoric, figural, question. And 1n

accord with the generic plot structure of a13-egorYr ! - having estab-

lished the "fa1len", entropic, condftion of every set of temporal

relationships, in the modern American mllieu of the t{hole Sick Crew',

and havlng posed a central dflemma which arises from this sÍtuation -

explores a nu¡mber of interpretative modes in the attempt to find a

basis for its solution. Hawthorne's, Me1ville's and Barth's narratives

all assu¡me initially that the object of the quest exists subjectively

and treat the possibillty that it resides objectively in reality as a

secondary consideration. But !r like the more "conventional" allegories

of Langland and Spenser, assumes an objective existence that can be

approached only through Ínterpretation. However, rather than then

proceed through a variety of formal cognitíve modes - like the fablet

sennon or personificatlon - !r whilst focusing upon Stencil-'s manner of

interpreting, directly addresses the problem of a reliabLe medium for

dj-scovering and communlcatÍng knowledge. Gonsequentlyr the search for

an adequate cognitive basis for the definitlon of V. is organized

around the observational nexus of the reconstructed, historical episodes

- the point of view.

Richard Patteson has provided an excellent account of the epist-

emological dimension of Stencil's quest, in his essay "What Stencil

Knew: Structure and Certitude in Pynchon'= !". He suggests that three

major questions be posed when considering Stencil's V.-data: who is the

narrator of each episode, what is the source of their informationr and

how reliable Ís it?6 For it is through the manipulatlon of narrative

pointsof view that the narrative explores and tests the adequacy of

firstly. objective and then subjectlve approaches to the rttruth" of V.,

and the key words or concepts which appear to promS.se some revelation

of t'hern nature. The episodes'concerning the Whole Sick Crew are

recounted by an, apparently reliable, omniscient naruator so that the

identÍfication of several key concepts whlch appear in this milieu, Ín

the form of V.-sy¡ptomsr may be assumed to exist in "fact[. It ls in

Stencil's attempt to diagnose_ the disease, locate its origin and formu-

late some prognosls,-that is, in his attemþt to approach V.-thet the

narrative becomes amblguous. I contend that this is due particuJ.arly to

the nature of V. r_ whlch is to reslst all attempts to know or define

"hern and to remain l-neffable¡ but is caused also by Stencll's approach

to the probJ-em. tVhere a frconventional-" allegoric narrative would focus

upon a development in self-knowledge - an "inner word" in Augustine's

terminology-beforeproceedingtotheidentificatlonofanexternalr

but correspondingly "invisiblee' reality Stencil nurtures a "repertoíre

of identities. ,Forcible dislocation of personality' was what he calIed

the general technique,,(p.62). As a part of his policy of "Approach and

avoid"(p.55), he evades the center to which all things seem to tend -

Ma1ta, scene of his fatherrs death - preferÍng instead to project

himself,throughimagination,intoaseriesofi.nterrnedÍatehistorica]

manifestations of v., hoping to know this {center'r without ever actually

and personallY confronting it'

Around each seed of a dossier, therefore' had

developedanacreouSmassofinference,poetic

license, forcible dislocation of personality

into a past he didnrt remember and had no right

in, save the right of imaginative anxiety or

historical care, which is recognized by ?o 9le(p.62) .

He begins his iourney in Alexandria, with the murder of Porpentine,

one of SidneYrs collegues, but

Herd only the veiled references to Porpentine

in the Journals' The rest was impersonation

and dream (p.63).

The single event, the culminatfon of a complex political- conspiracyt

is recounted from eight different perspectives; but the common

t'identityl' of these narrators is indicated by the tit]-e of the chapter:

"In which stencil, a quick-change artist, does eight impersonations"'

Through each guise, a set of "facts'are objectively reportedr yet no

single, coherent picture of the sltuation emerges from this combined

input that could be called the whole historical truth, The perceptions

of each narrator are partial, their knowledge fragmentary and incomplete

- much 1Íke experiencing a four-dimensional world from a three-dlmen-

sional vantage. -Yet several of the key V.-words íntroduced by the omni-

scient narrator orf the openlng sequences are further explored here,

partlcularly the notion of !'tourism " as a way of knowing and exper-

iencing the world; thus providing a significant commentary upon the

condition of cortbmporary Arnerica, in terms of a possible or1-gin of the

V.-disease that it seems to have contracted. In fact, the first of these

poÍnts of vÍew, that of nieul the cafe waiter, lntroduces the concept

of tourism as a way of describing, by contrast, the nature of his

English customers. The difficulty of knowing, from an I'objectivef'

distance, the ldentity of anyone is reflected initiall-y in the labelsìt

that Aieul glves the two EnglÍshmen - "Fat and Tweed" - based upon the

most obvious of physical characteristics. And it is elaboreted in the

scenarÍos he lmaginatlvely creates from scraps of overheard convers-

ation; a process that would be analogous to Stencil's construction of a

V,-plot or consptracy from random pieces of inforrnation and veiled

references, if that is actuqlly the method by which the epísode is

known. Alexandrla is characterized as a "touristrs cityrr, a city of

such appearances which is lmpenetrable bacause it is comprised only of

appearances, carefully prescrlbed by the touristrs equivalent of the

B!.ble¡ the Baedeker tour-guJ.de.

How wrong to expect any romance or sudden love

from Alexandrla. No tourl-st's cLty gave that

gift 11ghtly. . t r Let them be deceived lnto

thinklng the city something more than what their

Baedekers said it was: a Pharos long gone to

earthquake and the sea; plcturesque but

faceless Arabs; monuments, tombsr modern

hoteLs. A false and bastard city; inert - for

'rthem " - as nieul- himself ' (p.64).

But it is the abillty of rrFat'r - later identified as Porpentine - to

seem t'perTnanenttr amld thl-s landscape of the transient¡ to somehow

belong, that distinguishes him from the tourist, according to RIeuI.

Like the members of the Grew - Fergus Mixolydian, the Trish Arrnenian

Jew, comes immediately to mind - the tourist is characteristically out

of place wherever he goesr a perpetual transient.

The nature of the archetypal tourist and of the whole tourist-

metaphysic, ls elaborated in the thlrd "lmpersonetion", the point of

vl-ew of a citizen of Baedeker land, Maxwell Row1ey-Bugge. But before

this, we are provided with an account of a diplomatic gatheringt at the

Austrian Gonsulate, as witnessed by the waiter, Yusef. He introducest

in his own attitudes and sympathles, another aspect of V., that of

political entropy or anarchlsm, and another of her key words: violence'

Yusef reconclles the dual forces of "hothouse" and "street'rt belng a

',devotee of annihf-lation"(p.6?J, with a nostalgic love for balloons.

And also, in the wider context of thLs conbulate:part/¡ the twin forces

Ere brought together; {n the threatening violence of the Fashoda Grisis

and the presence of Victorla Wren, whom Yusef identifies as a "balIoon-

girl',(p.6?). The phrase',the balLoon has gone uptr, to indicate the

onset of war, rebelLionr or mass vJ.olence, is sustalned throughout the

narratlve and 1s often associated wlth V., thus strengthening Stencilrs

susplcfon that "V.'s natural habltat ,(f") the state of seige"(p.62).

Fashoda provldes the political and consplratorlal background to this

series of ,rimpersonatlons", but the narratl-ve ltself focuses upon the

exploration of a number of V.-concepts, particularly tourism and the

progressive annexation of the human by the inanimate¡ within a general

questloning of the nature of humanity. Yusef, for instance, can explaln

the behavlour of dlplomats, who socialize together at night but wage

war in the morning, only by deciding that they are not human. And he

himself, as a servant, "might as well- be a fixture on the wa1l"[p.68J.

This notion of the servant, public or otherwise, who is percelved

purely in terms of a functl-on, an appearance devoid of eny interior

reality, is the matrix wÍthin which Maxwell Rowley-Bugge forms his

self-image.

As a denizen of the Baedeker wor1d, he conceives of himself and

knols that others, the tourists, see hlm as

.. r that sort of vagrant who existsr though

unw1111ngly, entirely within the Biredeker

world - as much a feature of the topography

as the other automata¡ waÍters, porters, cabmen,

clerks. Teken for granted {p.?0).

Here we have another instance of that habitr already revealed by the

Who1e Sick Crew to be pervasive, of treating others as if they were

inanimate objects - automata - deprlved of their humanity in the very

act of perceptJ-on. This assumption lies at the center of what I have

call-ed the itourist metaphysici: a selective perception of the world

which accounts for only appearances and disregards all el-se. The fatal

consequences of such an attltude are more fully revealed laterr in

connexion with Fopp1-'s flseige partyr', which relÍves 1n the 'rhothouse"

of memory von Trothars genocl-dal campaign against the Herer'os and

Bondels - his Vernichtunqs Befehl - and whLch analyzes the dehumanized

relationship between kill-er and victj-m that originates in thLs assump-

tion. A concomÍtant result of this "touristic' mode of perception is

the substitution of such a set of mechanical relationships for a moral

order; the "unwritten laws of Baedeker land" of "an almost perfectly

arranged tourist-state"(p.?1) prevail. It ís amid thls expositj-on' of

the tourÍst mentality that we are given the fÍrst indication of the

nature of V. ¡ as Victoria Vfren. The Link between Victoria and V. is

confirmed progressively by the distinctive comb, featuring five

cruclfied soldiers, which is the single charÉÞristic of V. to be

sustained through her many metemorphosesr

Significantly, this t'lndicationtt takes the form of Víctoria's

religious experience and belief, Tt is significant because, as WÍlIiam

Plater argues, the evolution or temporal develooment of V. takes forrn.

withln the conceptual context of the Gatholic Church and its icono-.7

graphy.' V" ts evolution parallels that of Ghrist, as represented in

Piers Plowman ; specifically, his sequential fulfilment in the roles of

Jesu, then Jesusr and finally as the conqueror, Chríst. So V. evolves

from Virgin and bri-de, to mother, to Queen, incorporating the three

elements of the Trinity and becoming a force, of the same kind as this

Christian fdea, but of radically different temporal manifestation. In

Victoria Wren, V. exists in the aspect of the brÍde: she

... had indeed for a time considered the Son

of God as a young lady will consider any

elígible bachelor. But had realized eventually,

that of course he was not but mafntalned instead

a great harem cl-ad in black, decked only with

rosaries. Unable to stand for any such competitÍon

Victoria had therefore left the novitiate after a

matter of weeks but not the Church r.r (p.?2).

This is not to suggest that Victoria is V. i their relationship is more

one of possession, in which V. possesses and gradually domina-tes

Victoria, rather than of identity. Donsequently, Victoriars rather

perverse Gatholicism, combined with antipodean "yarns" from her Aust-

ralian uncle, form the materf.al for a manufactured dream worldt an

embryonic V.-wor]d or rtcolonial dol-l I s world " (p . 73) , that she can

control and manipulate.

So it came about that God wore a wideawake

hat and fought skirmishes with an aborigínal

Satan out at the antipodes of the firmamentt

in the name and for the safekeeplng of any

Victoria (p. ?3).

Gradually the temporal domain of this manipulation is extended from the

dream world of adolescent Victoria into reality as, through espionage

and political conspiracy, the force of V. is manifest.

In fact, the following "impersonation", from the poÍnt of view of

Wpldetar the train conductor, Juxtaposes the political and religious

conceptions of consplracy or design. Musing upon the history of

Alexandria as a scene of persecution or "cataclysm" and of God's inter-

vention, Vfaldetar concludes that

Whether a cataclysm is accide.nt or design,

they need a God to keep them safe from harm.

The storm and the earthquake have no mind.

Soul cannot commend no-soul. 0n1y God can ...

Events between soul and soul are not God's

direct province: they are under the influence

either of Fortune, or of virtue, (p.?8).

The nature of V. ts conspiratorial method becomes increasingly apparent

as a reconciliation of "Fortune" and design: of using the appearance of

accident to further her design. Each province becomes the domain of V.:

events between "soul and soul" she controls in her aspect of individual

agency or Machiavellian "virttl"; the relationship between "sou1" and

'fno-sou1" is hers in her metaphysical, deistic aspect. And her "design"

is revealed through her key words - soulless "communion", non-hUman

"decadence", the superficial- perception of tttourism", the dominance of

rrskins'r over "SoUI'r, the nostalgio "hothoUse" and viol-ent, futuristic

dreams of the "Street" - to be a progressive regression or deflectfon

fron ',sou]" to "no-soul", to a closed, inanimate system in which entropy

is triumphant and humanity is destroyed. It 1s the spy, Bongo-Shaftsbury

who makes expliclt an assoclatlon between potitical Íntrigue, prosthesis

and the notion of humanity as somethlng to be destroyed. He does thls

in hÍs own person: a spy who claims to be "an electro-mechanical doll-'r

[p.80)¡ who fri¿þtens Mildred \4lren, and disturbs Porpentine, with the

dramatic unveiling of his mechanical arm; and who then threatens

Porpentine with death, should he ever "admlt anotherrs humanityr see

him as a person and not a symbol"(p.Bl). The witness to this confront-

atlon, Wa1detar, 1s left with "a susplcion cheerless as the desert":

"If they are what I thlnk; whart sort of world is it when they must let

children suffer?"(p,82). The obvious suggestion is that it Ís a world

dominated by V.

The desert-Ltke quality of \{aldetaç's suspicion becomes the

context In which the gradual but j.nexorable progress of the inanimate

into the }åu1ng realm 1s explored¡ by the point of vlew which supplants

hls; Gebrai-l-, the driver. Here, the Last of V. rs central concepts is

introduced: the notion of disgulse. Disgulse ls treated Later in the

narrative as perforrning a metaphoric function - central to the llnguist-

ic or semiotlc attempt to identify V. - raising the problem of whether

disguise gives fo¡m to and so reveals something thet would otherwise

remaín inapprehensible, or whether it conceal-s a horrible realityt

something that we prefer not to apprehend. In terms of Sbncilrs questt

these possibilitids might be forrnulated as: does V. make visible a

transcendental force that directs modern history, or does the apparent

V.-plot conceaL a more terrible reality, that no plot exists at all¡that

history is govern.ed only by chance and is, in any caser unrecoverable

and unknowable. The nihilist Gebrall concelves of disguise in this

}atter function, claimlng that the desert is the only realityr and the

trappings of civiLl-zation to be conceallng illusions: 'trthe clty is

only the desert - gebel - In disguise"'(p.83). He plays upon the homo-

nymous relation between "Gebel, Gebrail'r, desert and angel, to construct

a scenarÍo in which the desert, gebel, rather than Gebrail, the Lord's

angel, dictated the Koran to Moharnmed, thus reducing Allah and his

Paradise to ,,wishful- thinking". And, in contrast to the "lies" that are

clvillzation, and organized religion, Gebrail lnterprets the desert's

inexorable progress as the true apocalypse.

The only Mahdl j-s the desert.

Mohammed Ahmedr,.,the Mahdi of '83, was befieved

by some to be sleeping not dead in a cavern near

Bagdad. And on the Last Day, when the prophet

Ghrist re-establishes e1-Isl-am as the reLigion of

the world he will return to Ilfe to slay Deja1 the

antichrist at a church gate somewhere in Palestine.

The Angel Asrafil w111 trumpet a blast to kiII

everything on earth¡ and another to awaken the dead.

But Bebrail/GeUel, the desert's angel¡ had hidden

aL1 the trurnpets beneath the sand. The desert was

prophesy enough of the Last Day (p'84).

Indeed, the analogous progress of V' may wel-I be the true, though

unexpted, apocalypse. Gebrailts drinking companion concetves of Fashoda

as the starting point for an apocalyptlc war "which will spread in all

directions to engulf the worId"(p.85). And a l1nk is establíshed between

Fashoda and V., through the image of disease.

This 11nk is, however, tentative; made by Hannet

waitress, as she attempts a litt1e amateur espionage.

idea of conspiracy, 'ra certain leÍtmotif of disease ... had half-

revealed itself, latent in the muslc of Cairors afternoon; Fashodat

Fashoda"(p.90). The accuracy of her perception is undermined by the

stain she discovers on a plate; of questionable reality, it Ís visible

only in a certaln focus, of shifting shape and is the "col-or of her

headache,'(p.90). A1so, Ít Ís not restricted to the surface of the platet

seeming to have "transferred like an overlay to each of her retinae'r(p91)t

so that the "triangular stain swam somewhere over the crowdr like a

tongue on Pentecost"(p.92). Thus it is suggested thatr if Vo is analog-

ous in some way to the Paraclete¡ t'Fashoda" is foremost among those

words which comprise her ngift of communicationft - along wlthr perhapst

Rachel's inanimate "MB-words". Gertainly, the residual- effect of this

word upon Hanne is to create an impression of pervasive disease and an

inclination to violence; both of whlch are V.-qualities. But the

subjectivÍty whlch colors the interpretatiorçgiven to events by Hannerby

the prevlous "impersonation" { Girgis, the mountebank, who sees in

Porpentine his own doomed 1-mage ) in fact,, by aJ-L of the "impersonations"-

undermines their approach to historical truth. The actual murder of

Porpentine, however, the single event which this series of "imperson-

ations',Bets out to explain, 1s reported from a distance kept so object-

ive that netther the narrative polnt of view nor the participants ln

this drama Bre identlfled, and some doubt does remaln about the identity

of the vlctim: whether it was actually PorpentÍne who was murdered.

the bierhalLe

Sensitized to the

In this atmosphere of cognitive uncertainty, the narrative

returns to the expLoits of the Whole Sick Crew; to the further explor-

ation of V. rs symptoms manlfest in modern America. Here, the uncertain

historical eXistence of these symptoms in Alexandria and Gairo is

balanced by the confident tone of the onniscient narrator as he recounts

the clrcumstances of Esther's 'nose iob", and the personal history of

Schoenrnaker¿ It is in the details of Schoenmaker's relationship with

Evan Godolphin, durlng the First World War - one of Stencilrs 'rkÍngdoms

of death',(p.54J - that the marks of V. agaÍ-n appear. In the manner of

Bongo-Shaftsburyrs mechanÍca1 arm, Evan Godolphin's wounds are treated

with ,'allograFtsr the introductlon of inert substances into the living

face"[p.gg). Consequentlyr"Godolphin receLved a nose bridge of ivoryr a

cheekbone of sllver and a paraffln and celluLoid chln"(p.100). Outraged

more by the temporary than the unnatural nature of this treatmentt

Schoenmaker galns from the incldent his professional Í-mpetus. Graduall-yt

however, his ttsense of mission'r and of responsibility is erodedt with a

growing acceptance of the causes of disfigurement and satlsfaction with

remedying their effects. "It was in short a deterioration of purpose; a

deCay"(p.101) - lnto decadence. For Schoenmaker has a peculÍarly

Jacobean conception of his profession, caIIlng it I'the art of Taglia-

cozz¡n, cultLvating I'the Tagliacozzi look'r[Þ.SZ). And the Jacobean, in

Pynchonrs fÍctlon, appears as a particularly decadent era¡ descrÍbed in

The Grying of Lot 49 as.. rrso preapocalyptic, death-wishfuI, sensually

fatigued,,.8 It i-s a culture, like that of the Whole Sick Crew, dominated

by a sense of crlsis, of the lmminent end of the old ordert paired with

a characteristic (non)-response of lnertia or rrconservatlve laziness"

(p.J.01). So Schoenmaker becomes, what mlght be caIIed, a secular agent

of V. ¡ advanclng through surgical prosthesis the domain of the inanimate

- and the narrator leaves ue in no doubt concernlng the vj-oLence which

necessaÍfl-y attends thls advance - supplanting the force of conscience

with ratlonal-ization, In Schoenmaker we have the conjunction of several-

V.-slmptoms: vfolence; decadence; a 'rhothouserr nostalgia for the past,

Jacobean age¡ finally¡ he is a rallylng-point for a soulLess 'rcommunion"

of those who prefer 'rskin" to lnterLor reality. Not surprising then 1s

Schoenmakerrs corrupting use of language. Not only does he construct

euphamisms, like 'tcultural harmony"(p.1O3'ì, to make physlcal lncongruity

acceptable but, in a notable 'conversatiod with Estherr erodes the

distlnctlon between the baslc duaì.lty of ryesrr änd dno'r.

"No, tt she cried.

"You have worked on many ways of sayfng no. No meaning

têsr That no I don't like. Say tt dlfferently'"

"Nor" wlth a tittle moanr

t'Different. Agaln. "

"Ngr " this tlme a smile, eyelÍds at half-rnast.

ttAgain.'l

|lNo r rl

"You're getting better." (pp.109-110).

Eventually, both words lose their neaníngs, becoming part of the entrop-

ic homogenelty that attaches to the nBeatrices'r of the rrsailorrs Grave'r.

Profane, now an aì.ligator hunter, dlscovers a slm11ar etrophy of

system in terms of the Alllgator Fatrol, its dwindLing resources and

the Lncapaclty of the men to take prlde 1n it; pride belng a word that

does not exiðt in the same trealt tbrms as 'rthree empty beer bottles

exfst to be ceshed in for a subway fare and warmth, someplace to sleep

for awhlIe"(p.115). Ttre debased condltibn and unrellabte nature of lang-

uage is revealed to Profane 1n hls encounter wlth the story of "Fairing's

Parish'r. The stbrf "-f.s presented lnltially as a reliable account, only

later do we leann that it exlsts ln multiple verstons and that "by tlie

time Profane heard them, (tn"y) were pretty much apocryphal and more

fantasy than the record warranted"(0.120). Yet Father Fairing's reponse

to a perceived imminence of apocalypser and Profaners response to his

story, are significant ln teyms of the V.-words that appear in the

accoUnt. It was during "the Depression of the '30rs, in an hour of

apocalyptl-c well-being"r that Falring decided the rats will be the

inherltors of the earth and so began the process of converting them to

Gatholicism. He transformed an area of the New York sewer into "an

enclave of light in a howling Dark Age of lgnorance and barbarity"[p.119).

And it is into this area of sewer that Profane pursues his unusual,

pinto a1J.igator. Both Fairing and Profane find one particular rat

interesti-ng: Veronica, 'rthe only member of his flock Father Fairing felt

to have a soul- worth savingrr[p.I21). A passage from Fairing's Journal

is quoted, concerning Veronica's literal conception of sin as an entity

which pursues her, a notion that is picked up later by V. in the guise

of the Bad Priest.

V. came to me tonight, upset. She and Paul have

been at 1t again.

The weight of guÍIt Ís so heavy on the chiÌd. She

almost sees lti as a huge, white, lumbering beastt

pursulng her, wanting to devour her. We discussed

Satan and hls wiles for several hours' (p.121).

The story of Veronica, the rat who wanted to become a nunt a possible

candldate for canonizatlon to a rat salnt-hood, haunts Profane as he

wanders deeper lnto the iParishü, trying "to keep his ears closed to

the sub-threshoLd squeakings of Veronlca, the priestrs ol-d love"(p.122).

Fina11y, he finds hlmsel-f and the elligator trapped in na wide space

like the nave of a churchrr, filled with an "uncomfortable radiance"[p.122)

an ,unholy light"(R.123),

He walted. He was waiting for something to

happen. Something otherworldlyr of course. He

was sentimental and superstltl-ous. Surely the

aJ-ligator would recål¡ve the gift of tongues,

the body of Father Falring be resurrectedr the

sexy V. tempt him away from murder. He felt

about to levitate and at a loss to say wheret

reaIly, he was {p.122).

But the Pentecostal moment is deferred; Profane shoots his alligator

and 1s left only with the multiple stories of V.

However, Pig Bodine f.s given a "gift of tongues", of sorts, by

the ltho1e Sick Grew, Rache] is not surprised by his sudden change of

idiom, "after all he had been hanging around the Spoon. For the next

hour they talked proper nouns"(pp.130-31). Could it be that in America,

in L956r thls is V.'s "gift" to a decadent, apostatical hr.rmanity? For

the key words that we have seen identified as aspects of V, - tourlsm,

inanlmatlon, decadence, vlolence, communion, hothouse and street, skin,

dJ-sguise - all are reducl-ble, 'in causal termsr'::to this llnguistÍc

condftion: they are the psycfrotogicaL¡ perceptual or cognitive and

soclal- expressfons of a corruptlng language. The temporal- force of V.

is manifest, primarily, 1n the reductlon of words to

.. r amblguous tools of thought, capable not

of-r,reveallng a true cognitlon but ... of

generatlng a corruption of understandÍ-ng. 9

Like the "FaLs" of lie¡q fletl4¡g!,, V. operates on the l-Ínguf-sti-c

categories that are imposed upon experience and through which knowledge

exists, erodlng the distinctiveness of these systems by dissolving

their idifferencei. So the distinction between rskinrr and isouli

dissolves into the single perceptual principle oftbppearancer employed

by the tourlst; the hothouse and street deflect attention from the lived

moment, the "real present", which dissolves into nostalgia on the one

hand or futuristic dreams on the other' But essential'ly v' rs design is

di::ected toward makJ-ng amblguous the distinctLon between humanity and

the inhuman: through prosthesls, decadence and disguise. It is a proj-

ect which thus advances ånd exaggerates the process of entropyr in a

decline which V. progressively embodles as well as directs. The concept

of such an historical design moves increasingly to the centen of narr-

ative focus, as Stencil begins to suspect the existence of an unident-

if ied 'rThem ".

He confesses his fear of a hostile force, actively opposed to the

fulfilment of his quest, to the "psychodontist" Eigenvalue who remains,

however, sceptical. Yet he does allow Stencil to recount what history

he has of V.

I'Shers ylelded him only the poor skeleton of

a dossier. Most of what he has is inference.

He doesn't know who she is, nor what she is.

... He had dlscovered, however, what was

pertlnent to his purpose: that sherd been

connected, though perhaps only tangentiallyt

with one of those grand conspiracies or

foretastes of Armageddon ... in the yaars

preceding the Great War. V. and a consplracy.

Its particul-ar shape governed only by the

surface accidents of history at the time.Ì [p.155).

More significant, perhaps, than Stencil's link between V. and a

conspiracy is this repetition of the association between V. r mass

violence and the events of Apooalypse; but it is a signÍficance which

Stencil does not appear to perceive. Eigenvalue visualizes the structure

of history, not in terms of any "grand conspiracy'rr but as a sine-

wave or rippled fabric 1n which continuity is disguised by the modulat-

ing amplitude of the cycles. So, from the perspective of I'the bottom of

a fo1d"(p.155)r anY over-view is impossible - just as it is difficult

to perceive a four-dimensional continuity from a three-dímensional

vantage. The narrative¡ as 1t progresses, introduces several such

cognitive forms, interpretative frameworks that are imposed upon the

material of histony, each producing a different conception of the mean-

ing of history but not permitting the actual- perception of such an

over-view as Stencil seeks. Profane, for instance, formulates a sexual

theory of history: "history unfolds according to economic forces and

the only reason anybody wants to get rich is so he can get laid

steadily, with whomever he chooses"(p.214). In this way, the namative

does conslder a number of formal lnterpretative modes in the attempt to

discover an adequate epistemological basis for the solution of Stencilts

dllemma - the definition of V., the modern century's presiding genius -

which ls the dilemma of the entire narrative.

The notion of conspiracy is most ful-Iy explored in chapter seven

where, as I have already mentioned, V. is assocÍated not with any

coherent, precise plot but with accidentr. cross-purposes and misinterp-

retatÍon. Yet the confusion produced by the intersection of the Venust

Vheissu and Venezuafan plots results Ín an anarchistic riot - a politic-

a1 expresslon of entropy - and 1n vlolent death; perhaps an instance of

V. employing the appearance of accident to further her own design.

Stencll's approach to this possibl-e design, through the reconstruction

of the Florence V.-episode, remains as tentative as was his first hist-

orical foray. Here, his sources are 'rinference'r and "on-the-spot

investigation"(p.155), although the appearance of Sidney Stencil does

create the lllusion of an lncrease in reliability and, Iikewiser the

reappearance of Evan Godolphln and Victorla Wren produces the impress-

ion that some increase in clarity is made. But despite the uncertain

re1iabIllty of the account, a devel-opment is revealed in the character

of V., as Victoria Wren.

Thus far, the religious nature of V. has been descrÍbed in terms

of the experience of the novitiate - Victoria and VeronÍca in the

aspect of the virgin..In this episode, however, Victoria's literal prog-

ress to ttre conàition of rrbride{ is revealed; a progress which is,

effectively, the extension of V, from a "colonial do1l's world" into

reality. Now a "self-proclaimed cl-tizen of the wor1d"(p.166), Victori-a's

imarriager to Christ has been consummated through a series of "imperfect,

mortal versions of himself"(p.16?) and, in her perverse mannerr she

Íntèrprets these consummations in overtly figural terms as "outward and

visible signs of an inward or spiritual grace belonging to Victoria

al-one"(p.16?). The origin of her perverse religious temperament, "a nun-

like temperament pushed to its most dangerous extreme"(p.16?), is

ambiguously Located by the narrator in "some malady of the generatÍon'r:

a "maLady" which has Led "similarl-y-minded ladies" in Paris, to attend

Black Masses. In fact, it ls 1n Parisr in L913, that we see V. herself

partlcipating in a Black Mass. But thls progress from vÍrgin to bride

is not explicitly llnked to the ongoing development of V. until later -

later, when the narrator observes that "Having once accepted duality

Victoria found it only a single step to Trinity"(p.199) - after the

definition of V. has been expanded through her association with both

Vheissu qnd VenLrs.

It is to Victoria Wren that Hugh Godolphin recounts the discovery

of Vheissu, and ft ís an sccount whlch augments previous suggestions of

Vts infernal nature. For his description of the geographical approach

to vheissu 1s al-luslve of the landscape through vrhich Dante makes his

descent into he1I. The "vast tundra"(p.168), for instance, is remin-

iscent of the plain of Dis covered with burning tombs, the "dolmens and

tempS.es of dead cities" reminlscent of the Gity of Dis; 'ltreacherous

swampland'r recalls the Ularsh of Styx whilst the'rgreen lake'r recalls

the Well- at the bottom of the Abyss; the mountains which ring VheÍssu

are alLusive of the many mounts and precipices which Dante must climb

and Vheissurs 'hard blue fce" is reminiscent of the frozen Lake of

Gocybus. All of these physical obstacles Dante must overcome bel"ore he

reaches the center of the earth and the rocky cavern where Satan standst

just as Hugh Godolphin must in order to reach the "dead center of the

carousel(p.205), whlch is Vheissu. There, he discovers a vision of

total meaning3-essness; a dream landscape - perhaps a "colonial dollts

wor1d"(p.?3) - of random, kal,eidoscopic col-or, where dreams are more

real than realÍty: a place with no soul but only skin, like the [skin

of a tatooed savage,'(p.1?0), a place which Godolphirrrconceptualizes as

a woman. The link between Vhej-ssu and V. is forged initiaLly by this

shared female quality, but Vheissu possesses other V.-characteristics.

Apparently comprised only of ilskinf', 1t 1s a 'tourist's" domain, like

Alexandrla, and although Godolphin conceíves of himself, as an explorert

as the dlametric opposite of the tourlst - "They want only the skln of

a place, the explorer wants lts heart"(p.204) - he leaves Vheissu as a

tourist. For the effect upon hlm of this vision of an existential void,

of "¡rbthlng,,¡ is exile from the human community: Vhelssu transforms him

lnto a perpetual transient. And, in the manner which has been'progress-

ively identified as Vi's¡ his perception of real-ity 1s deflected into

dream - dreams whfch appear more real than reality - as VheÍssu comes

to occupy the ',hothouse" of hls memory¡ The violence of V. is reflected

in the "barbarfty, insurrection¡ internlcine feud'r of Vheissut and the

inanimate, that most obvious of V' rs signsr

Godolphin in the corpse of a spider monkey¡

is encapsulated for

found beneath the Antarctic

A mockery, you seei a mockery of lifet pLanted

where everything but Hugh Godolphin-,was inanimate,

lÏith of course the impllcation . o. It díd teLl me

the truth about them. If Eden was the creation of

God, God only knows what evil created Vheissun

The skin which had wrinkled through my nightmares

was eII there had ever been. Vheissu itsel-ft a

gaudy dream [p.206).

Lhlike Dante, Godolphin does not dl-scsver Satan- standíng immobllizedt

frozen, but he does read the Devil's message: the knowledge of certain

death and denÍal of eternal Iife.He interprets the corpse as a sign and, like Herbert Stencilt

reasons from thls the exLstence of a sinlster V.-pIot. The BrÍtish

Forelgn Offlce in Florence al-so accepts the existence of a V.-conspiracyt

mJ.sinterpretfng Vhelssu as a code-name for Venezuala, misconstruing the

intriguing of the Gaucho, a Venezualan anarchist¡ who-, actuaLly oonspires

to steal Bottfcellirs Birth of Venus. The Vheissur Venus and Venezualan

plots - plots subJectfve, private and poS.itLcal - intersect to produce

a "Situatlonrr of lmmense compLexlty. Bl¡t,the readers are no l-onger

restricted by the llmited access of obJective wÍtnesses to the action,

as we wene in the Alexandrlan V.-episode, our access to this situatlon,

fs controlled by a narratl-ve polnt of view that shifts among the minds

of the characters involved in the actlon. GonsequentS-y, their reflect-

ions upon the significance of events in terms of a V.-conspiracy are

made available. Sidney Stencil, for instance, constructs a theory of

"The Situatlonr', decidlng

.r. that no Situation had any objective reality:

it existed'in the minds of those who happened to

be in on it at,any specific moment. Since these

several minds tended to form a sum total more

mongrel than homogenous, The Situation must

necesserily appear to a single observer much like

a diagram in four dimensions to an eye conditioned

'to seelng íts world in only three [p.189).

Sidneyrs solution to this epistemological dilemma, teamworkn knowing a

"situatlon" through accreting accounts of 1t, is the nethod adopted by

the narrati-ve thus far; yet it has not yielded Herbert Stencilr or usr

a valid accbunt of V'

Victoria Wren adopts lndividual volition or hiachiavelllan virtú,

not as an interpretative approach to the Situationr but as an agent of

it. Fínding faith and the Church inadequate to her purpose, she adds to

them this element of personal control whlch 1s manifest in espionage.

The Alexandria episode, and her involvement wÍth the spy Goodfellowt

"had revealed to her all at once a l-atent talent of her own for espion-

age"(p,198). Victoria is attracted to polltical intrigue primaril-y

because she finds "any virtue'r desirable in itselfr but particularly

because "it became more effective the further divorced it was from

moral lntention"(p.198). And¡ ãs wB have seen, the movement away from a

coherent moral order 1s a characterfstic effect of V. Mantj-ssar the

Gaucho and Ferrante share Vlctorlä's'comml-tment to, this idea of person-

a1 control, a commltment which 1s related by the narrator to a t39

sièc1e decadence, as he asks: "what was the tag-end of an age J-f not

that sort of imbalance, that tilt toward the more devious, the less

forceful?"(p.1991. Having heard Godolphfn's account of Vhei-ssu, Mantissa

finally perceives such a decadence as the predominating quality of his

relationship with the Botticelli Venus; his "entire love" and dream of

beauty is recognized to be "a gaudy dream, a dream of anníhllation'l

[p'2I01; his love to be for an inhurnan mistress, a goddess of love and

death. VÍctoria makes use of this decadence or deviouness, to achieve

"the conforming of events to the channels she'd set out for them as

glortous testimony to her own skil1."(p.199). So the confused cluster

of conspiracies culminates in a "fair of violent deathr framed and

staged, it seemed, for her aIone"(o.ZOS); it is a ritual of violence

which ïliLlÍam Plater interprets as a celebration of the marriage of the

two orders - virtú or control and the Church, faith - which is the

birth of V.10 Ind""d, it is the point at which Victoria shovrs an initial

recognition of her possession by V.:

It was as if she saw herseLf embodying a

femlnine prlnciple, acting as compl-ement

to al-l this bursting, explosive male energy.

Inviolate and calm¡ she watched the spasms

of wounded bodies ... [p.209).

She has been, thus far, seen in the aspects of virgin and bride; here

she develops further to become a forcei a demonic Holy Ghost or spiritus

infernus, perhaps. This should not be surprising; as Plater points outt

in its earlÍest forrns the Holy Ghost was feminlne - as the Hebrew

sheklnah and Roman Venust dove[-and further, the narrative ltself con-

siders the possibiJ.ity of a femlnlne Paraclete. V. does not forego her

earlier characterj-stics in this development; she progresses through the

accumulatlon of mechanlsns through which her force may be manifest. The

perverse V.-verston of the Trlnity which is promÍsed and foreshado'wed

here 1n Florence is not reaIlsed, however, until 1913 in Paris, when we

see ttV. in lovert .

Of course the historical V.-epLsodes are not presented in a

chronological sequence. Between her appearance j-n Florence in 1899 and

Paris in 1913 where V. ascends to the status of iQueen', we witness the

effects of her maturity - presiding over the decadence of Foppl rs seige

party in 1922 - and are presented with an account of the circumstances

of her death on Ma1ta, ín 1942. The effect of this dislocation in

sequence is to suggest ornnlpresence as the condition of V. rs existence,

to contrast the historical perspectives constructed by Stencll with a

concept or principle which transcends the limltations of those perspect-

Íves. In other words, the historical V.-episodes are created in three

dimensfons whilst V. herself exists in four; in a realm outsíde of that

of one-way or chronological time. It is thls conflÍct which produces

the impression that the manifestations of V. are in fttt Èrc,g, clues

to a continuity beyond the limited perspectives of human history. This

impression is strengthened by the fallure of all the epj-stemological

forms expl-ored by the narrative to produce an adequate definltion of V.,

and also by her continulng lnfluence upm American society 1n 1956t

desplte her physlcal death¡ which is revealed ln the eplsodes concerning

the Whole Sick Crew.

The rfcontemporary" sequence that ls Juxtaposed with the Florence

episode, for instance, returns to three lmportant V.-words that were

explored there: the concepts of the inanlmate¡ decadence and conspiracy.

The inanimate principle i-s dealt with largely by Profane, a self-

confessed 'rschlemihl" who llves, despite himself, a constant battle

wlth the inanimate. For he J-s¡ In a sense, partially lnanimate himself:

a "yo¡/or¡ whose movement on the "street of the 20th centuryn ís only an

llLusion of movement or progress; "it woul"d always seem maybe he was

]-ooking for somethl-ng too to make the fact of his own dlsassembly

plausible as that of any machine"(p.40). Possessed of a vocabulary of

"wrong words" and the desire to be treated as an object - preÊr361y of

mercy - he deals with interpersonal relatlonships as 1f they weret

somehow, inanimate. Women, particularly, he thinks of - fantasises about

- in mechanlcal terms, describing Rachel as t'a true wind-up woman"¡

'rlike an automatic card-deallng machine"(o.z1o)¡ as if she were a

prototype of what we wj-I1 discover V. to be. Most of the Grew share

Profanets attitudes and characteristics - "yoyoing" is their particular

hobby - but Roony Winsome is the only member who has a self-conscious

awareness of their decadence, thinking of them all as rrproducts of a

decky-dance r'.

$linsome, self-proclaimed king of itr felt

only sorry it shouLd ever have happened'

l-{ow it happened, how anybodyr himself

incl-uded, had contributed to it he didn't

know (p,221J.

It 1s the etiology of this decadence, this V.-disease, that

Stencll alone ettempts to dlscover; he seeks the knotryledge of why and

how it happened¡ and how anybody - but V. specifi-cally - had contrib-

uted to it. The difficulty of his quest 1s again underlined by a narr-

atoriaL assertion of the relatlvlty of historical perceptionn

People read what news they wanted to and

each accordingly built hls own rathouse of

hlstoryrs rags and straws. In the city of

New Yo¡k alone there were at a rough estimate

five mlllion dtfferent rathouses (p.225).

Although Stencll does not himself conceive of the impulse behind his

quest as the dlagnosis of this disease which afflicts his society and

his century, he does begin to thlnk of V. in transcendent and apocalyp-

tic terms, as a principle whlch is manifest in such discrete "rathouses"

but is not restricted to any one of them; as a conspiracy of immense

and pervaslve proportions.

To go along assuming that Victoria the girl

tourist and Veronica the sewer rat were one

and the same V. was not at al-l- to bring up any

metempsychosis: only to affirm that his quarry

fitted in wlth The Big One, the centuryrs

master cabal, in the way Victorla had with the

Vhej-ssu plot and Veronlca with the new rat-order.

If she was a historical fact then she continued

active today and at the moment, because the

ultimate Plot Whích Has No Name was as yet

unrealized (p. 226).

The structure of the narrative, with its juxtaposition of historlcal

and contemporary sequences, suggests that V. is indeed an historÍca1

fact, perhaps even the apocalyptic "Big Oneil itself. We must keep in

mind the rhetorical gap which Ís sustalned between the information

available to the characters and the narrative account of this which is

provided for the reader. The apocalyptic quality of V. and of the "con-

spiracy'r that she suggests, is a quality reoógnísed not only by the

characters in the action but al-so by the apparently reliable omniscient

narrator. So despite the "Stencilised" nature of the reconstructed V.-

episodes, the realisation of this "ultimate Plot Which Has No Nåme'r as

Apocalypse is a possibility that must be seriously entertained. And yet

the ultimate reallzatj-on of this "PLot'r is not the primary concern of

the narratlve, which focuses instead upon its origin and nature.

Stencilrs account of the progress of V., and her temporal design,

in Southwest Africa, in 1922, reveals a further exploration of the

objectÍve mode of discovering and communicating knorvledge. It isr in

fact, the culminatlon of this aspect of the narrativers epistemological

theme, Mondaugen is the sj.ngle witness to and reporter of the actidnt

but the reliabllity of his account is seriously unde¡mined by the

progressive interiorizatíon of his point of view, as his story shifts

from an objective fÍrst person namative concerned with the facts of

his situation to a gradual predominance of impressions and then fantasy

and imaginatlve speculation. l-{f-s professional functionr to record

'ratmospheric radÍo disturbances: sferlcs for short"(p.2m), further

undermlnes his rellabillty by suggesting a tendency to seek pattern

where there may be none. But through Mondaugents story we discover the

effects of V. in nmirror-time in the South-West Protectorate"[p.230):

the 'rmirror-time" of a "mirror-worId* which formed the subject of

RacheL's earller speculatj-ons.

The presence of V. in this "wor1d" is first signalled by the

phrase used to indicate the onset of native rebellion: "So the balloonrs

gone up, Mondsugen"(p.23,2). Indeed, she appears in the persona of Vera

Merovlng, Victoria Wren's desire to shape historicaL events to the form

of her own choosing, through her virtú, now reified in Verars elaborate

cLock eye. This reificatlon embodies the shlft j-n V. rs activities, from

her FlorentÍan interlude where vlolence *u= tt'.re predomÍnating V.-

quality of events, to the centrality here of one of V.'s more rhist-

orj-caLó characteristics: the "hothouserr conception of time. For, as

Mondaugen quickl-y discovers¡ the centa¡ of activity ín Foppl's 'stege

party" ís the reconstruction in "words and perhaps in deed"(p.240) of

von Trotha's genocldal campalgn of 1904. But as Mondaugen also dis-

covers, the distinction between word and deed is one difficult to

sustaÍn withln the context of thls decadence - a dissolutlon of distinct-

ions which is as characteristically V.'s as i-s the deflection away frorn

reality to "hothouse" dreams of the past. The decadence of the siege

party defines itself for Mondaugen as an analogy to Munich at Faschingt

'ta city dying of abandon, venality"(p.236). HÞ dreams of being 1ed

through Munichrs streets by Vera Meroving, streets popul-ated by faces

which bear the marks of the V.-disease; "white faces, 1Íke diseased

blooms, bobbed along in the dark as; ùf -moved by other forces toward

some graveyard, to pay homage at an important burial"(p.24+). It 1s,

however, his dreamlng which casts doubt upon the validity of his entire

account. Mondaugen conceÍves of himseÌf, in the role of witness to the

sfege party, as a voyeur; subsequently, the dlsturbing problem occurs

to him: "that if dreams are only waking sensation first stored and later.

operated on, then the dreams of a voyeur can never be his own"(p.255).

This dilemma is progressively realised as an inability to distinguish

between the actors in this drama, as the sources of his inforrnation, and

a concornitant difficulty in dlstinggishing interior from external

reality. And so he confuses the respective 'thothouses" of Foppl and

Hugh GodolphÍn.

The reappearance of old Godolphin and the resumption of his

relationship with Vera/Vlctoria 1s the major llnk between the two V.-

personaer And the 'rconspiracy" that Mondaugen has suspected, existing

ln a latent and unacknowledged form between Vera and himself coalesces

and takes tangible form around the figure of GodolphÍn. For in a way

that Mondaugen could not know, she manlpulates events and moulds

Mondaugen hlmself into a wralth of Evan Godolphtn, Ín order to recreate

the atmosphere of Florence; to conquer and possess l'll¡gh by drawing him

into the 'rhothouse" of VheLssu, permanently. She operates upon the

tentative distinctlon between memory and present reality, a distinction

rapidly and entrûpfcally declinlng as the slege party goes on. Vera

draws an expl-icit analogy between Vheissu and the current e1Ége, or

rather Fopplrs recreation of 1904, trying to recall and recreate it in

Godolphints present memoryi rrDonrt you see? Thl-s slège. ft's VheÍssu.

ftfs finally happened"(p,24A). His resistance, though brief, is signif-

icantly based on a distinction between private and public dreams:

arguing that such subjective dreams as Vheissu are no longer possiblet

he claims that once dreams become publlc they cease to be dreams and

become instead temible realitiesn their "need', "its voidr', is fi1led

with "The real thing. Unfortunately"(p.2a€]). Godolphinrs resistance is

inevitably brief; the pressure of nostalgia applÍed by Vera and the

pressure simply exerted by the "hothouse" context within whj.ch he is

living exert their effect upon his tremulous set of dlstinctions;

Mondaugen becomes hÍs long-lost son Evan and Mondaugent in his turn,

cannot distingulsh the recollections of Godolphin from those of Fopp1,

with any absolute clarity; 'rMondaugen could at least note that though

the events were Foppl-rs, the humanJ-ty could easil-y have been: Godolphinrsil

(p.255). Foppl comes increaslngly to define his guests by prescribing

theír flcommon dream'rt the dream of 1904.

It is in the account of von Trotha's genocldal campaígn against

the Herero and Hottentot tribes that the practical consequences of V.'s

imetaphysÍcr are set out at length. HEre, the key V.-words intersect to

produce a situation in which humanity is defeated and replaced by the

inhuman. The process of dehumanization takes the initial form of "liber-

ationi from the constralnts of moral imperatives, supplanted by

.. r comfort, the luxury; when you knew

you could safely forget all the rote-

lessons yourd had to learn about the value

and dignity of human l-1fe [p.253),

This freedom is quickty translated into the practical terms of

"functional agreement'r or "operational sympathy", the attitude that

,'you were in no sense ki}lÍng"(0.261). And with this attitude the

natives are reduced to objects, automatar in the act of perception

which conceives them only in terms of a function: the function of the

vlctim. Gonsequently, the sense of "luxury" degenerates into boredomt

viol-ence is no 1ônger the corollary to rage but a mechanj-cal act. Even

the annoyance which accompanies a sense of futility borne of 'rthe know-

ledge that thj-s is only one unit in a seemingly infinite seriesr that

killing this one won't end it "(p.263), even the boredom of repetitivet

mechanical extermination is not sustalned. An awareness of a kind of

natural order takes over, so that the act of killlng assumes a new

significance: "It had only to do with destroyer and the destroyedr and

the act which united them"(p "264). From this sense of structure¡ "a set

symmetry, a dancelike poise"[O.ZOA¡¡ and subsequent emotional peace,

there is no return; it is the poínt at which a coherent, humane moral

order is finalty and i-rrevocebly replaced wlth an inhuman relationship

in which "soul and soul"(p.?8) become "victimizers and victimsr screwers

and screwees"(p.49), as Flachel perceives lt in modern New York. The

frtouristic" rnode of perception, of appearances and functions alone,

wlth violence as a catalyst, produces a set of inhuman or decÊdentt

inanimate reLationships, a nsymmetry'r where entropy triumphs over

humgnity. And the events of 1904, 1n terms of their colonialr political

policy, are events of the "street'r; this genocidal exterrnlnatlon of

natlves a necessary historlcal stage, a function of the future, the

gLory of an enpirei and so form the stuff of fhothouse" dreams'

The reliability of Mondaugen's account isr.howeverr highly

anbiguous. He relives 1904 as an unnamed soldier of von Trnthars army

but this first-person narrative 1s interspersed with events of 1,ge?.

Like Stencfl, his information is based upon recollection, augmented

with dreams and speculatlon and presented as a "dislocation of person-

alÍty". Hl-s scurvy-lnduced fever suggests the possibil-ity that it is

all simple halluclnation; yet if hls source is fn fact Fopplr then the

interpretation Mondaugen makes of hís account is open to question -

Mondaugen does, after all, leave the síege party wlth "those first

tentative glandular pressures that one day develop into moral outrage"

(p.2??). Together with the ambiguous role of l-{ùgh Godolphinì as a source

of information, they form multiple points of viewr similar to those

which repoited the Fl-orerìce V':spisode, but further internalizedt

located wlthin the single mind of Mondaugen rather than in the narr-

atÍve itself, which earlier shlfted among the minds of the characters

involved ln the action. And then, the entire story is I'Stencilised'r;

attention is drawn to this fact by the interruptions made by Eigenvalue

as he listens to Stencil¡s retel1lng of lt, making sceptical enquiries

as to its vaLidity.

But the role of V. - Stencil's cente¡ of interest - is peripheral

to the recollection of 1904r operatlng lnstead upon the "hothouse"

recreatlon of ito The lnfluence of Vo is apparent in the V.-concepts

that characterLze the entire episode and these sub-categories are more

clearl-y defined as a resuÌt. Bilt, in the way Mondaugen characterizes

Vera¡ V. herself remalns ambivalentr through

. r r her inabilf ty to come to rest any'r'vhere

inslde pJ-ausible extremesr h.er nervoL¡st

endless motlsn ... but finally makingt

havlng made, sense only as the dynamic

uncertal-nty she was . . . (p.256) .

This 'runcertalnty" 1s reflected l-n the diverse gesgraphical appearances

that Vera seems to have made: Florence, Southwest Afrlcat Munich one

Fasching; suggestj-ng that perhaps it is she whom Mondaugen identifies

when he identlfies the nature of the seige party as "a soul-depression

which must surely infest Europe as it infested this house", and his own

involvement in it ln terns of a curse laid on him one Fasching: "to

become surrounded by decadence no matter what exotÍc region .. r he

wandered into"(p,2??). The notion of decadence as a dÍsease and a

disease that is spreadlng, obviousl-y relates thls episode to V. ¡ and

Mondaugenrs experience to that of contemporary America, to the Whole

Sick Crew partlcularly. As Richard Patteson observes: '!The veldr one

might say, ís dle lYelt", l2

In fact, Stencil explicitly relates the Crev,r at the Rusty Spoon

club to "the Crew at Foppl's, saw here the same leprous pointillism of

orris root, weak Jaws and bloodshot eyesi'(p,296). But it is Eigenvalue

who locates the linguistlc basis of this decadence, the use of words to

repl-ace rather than express "Thought'r.

Gonversations at the Spoon had become litt1e

more than proper nouns, lÍterary allusions,

critical or philosophical terrns llnked Ín

certain ways. (p,29?),

This sort of arranging and rearranging was

Decadence, but the exhaustion of alJ- possible

permutations and combinations was death , (p.298).

Eigenvalue takes consolatlon in teeth and metal whlch endure; but they

endure for the very reason that they already embody the inanimate

symmetry to whlch everythlng epparently is declining. The principle of

the inanimate underLtes the Crew's linguistic assumptions and isr from

this basis, manifest In al-L other areas of human actlvity. But the

assumption that man ls essentially a mechanism 1s most fu1ly revealed

to Profane in his encounter with the anthropomorphized mannikins SHOGK

and SHROUD.

These mannikins embody the conception of man as a thing which can

be defined in terms of "a clockwork automaton", "a heat-enginer about

40 per cent efficlent" or "somethlng whlch absorbs X-raysr gamma rays

and neutrons"(p,284). The prophecy that Profane recei.ves from SHROUD ís

a more expliclt statement of the V.-deslgn that has been suggested

throughout the narrative: that SHOCK and SHROUD are but early proto-

types of what humanity will become. Von Trotha's extermination of the

Herero and Hottentot tribes foreshadows the Nazi extermination of Jews;

that both are based upon the perception of a race of menr as essentially

inanimate is revealed in SHROUD's analogy; 'rThousands of Jewish corpsest

stacked up like those poor car-bodj-es. Schlemihl: Itrs already started'r

[p.295). More insldious, however, are the individual ÍncursÍons of the

inanimate¡ and the sophÍstical rationalizations made by such as Schoen-

makero Using a perverse interpretatlon of Platonism, he constructs an

image of prosthesis as the union of - or perhaps confusion of - the

physical and ideal, the body and the soul, whlch is desÍgned to deflect

attention from the "soul" to the material: "Her souL woul-d be there on

the outside, radiant, unutterably beautlful". But with a commonsense

kind of cLarity Esther cuts through ttfis euphemistlc theorizing to ask:

"lÏho are you r!. to say what my soul looks 1iker'(p.29?).

The nature of the relationshlp between the visible and the in-

visible is the primary subject of the fol.lowing Vo-episode, the confess-

lons of Fausto Majistral. Following the exploration of I'tourismrr j.n

Alexandria, vlolence in Florence and the 'rhothouse" 1n Southwest Africa,

the central V.-concept explored here is disguise or metaphor; a concept

obviously central to establishlng the ontologica} and epistemologlcal

status of V.¡ and also the nature of StencLJ-rs quest, which attempts to

discover a truey though metaphorlc, hlstory tnformed by V. thlike

Schoenmaker, who argues that prosthesis - a species of metaphor - makes

visible that which otherwise remains imperceptible, Fausto concelves of

metaphor as a forrn of disguise. And, for the first time in the narrative

the interpretation of a key V.-concept, by a characterr is explicitly

related to a set of causal linguistic assumptions. Fausto shares the

attitude of the Egyptian driver, the nihilist Gebrail, but for different

reasons; his awareness of the gap between reality and discourse, which

metaphor attempts to bridge, is founded upon his knowledge of the arbit-

rary nature of language.

As a product of British colonialísm, educated in two languages -

Maltese and English - Fausto is particularly aware of the perceptual

constraints imposed by language. He remarks, for instancer upon the

absence of nuances from the Mal-tese language, vrhích are a part of

Englishr añd relates this absence to a vvay of perceiving the worldr one

tending toward "peace and simplicity". But speakingr and thinkingr in

both languages, Fausto conceives of himself as "a dual manf ai-med in

two ways at once", torn between the two cognitive modes;

To be merely Maltese: endure almost mindlesst

without sense of time? Or to think -

contÍnuously - in English, to be too aware of

war, of time, of all the grays and shadows of

love? (p.309J.

As one result of this dilemma, Fausto describes the devel-opment of his

personalÍty - through four stages to the time of writing his rrconfession"

- in terms of his changing attÍtude towards¡ and use of, language. So

the youthful Fausto I ls characterised by a love of Elizabethan phrases

and high-flown rhetoric, Shakespeare and T.S.El-iot; whil-st Fausto IIr a

product of the 5iege of Malta, during the Second World Warr is "more

Maltese and less British"[p.3Ia), and yet his earlier optimism and love

of rhetoric is replaced with a fascinatÌon for the conceptual; he is a

"young man in retreat"(p.311), a retreat from a pantheístic religious

awareness into religlous abstractÍon and poetry. "Moving towards that

island-wide sense of communion. And at the same time towards the lowest

form of consclousness"[p.315). It is a communion i-n "Purgatory", poetry

dominated by a sense of "slow apocalypse"(p.316)r Bnd a retreat into

non-humanity. As Fausto IIf begins to emerge, abstraction gives way to

a 'rsensitivity to decadence'r or inanimation.

Decadence, decadence. What is it? 0n1y a

clear movement toward death or, preferablyt

non-humanity. Fausto If and IfI ... like

any dead leaf or fragment of metal theyrd

be finally subject to the laws of physics.

All the time pretending it was a great

struggle between the laws of man and the

l-aws of God (p.321) .

This progress is encapsulated in the development of "the Siegre poetry":

"From the quick to the inanimate"(p.320). Poetry itself is regarded

here as the poet's communi.cation with his own senses'similar to the

sitent music produced by the Duke di Angelis quartet fn "Entropy'r -

forrning a closed psychic cfrcuit, the kind of closed system in which

entropy - "the laws of physios" - accelerates. And it is at this stage

that Fausto dl-scovers what he concelves to be "lifers single lesson:

that there is more accident to lt than a man can ever admit to in a

lifetime and stay sane"(pp.320-21). He perceives also a l-ink between

such acctdent, decadence and mätriarchy, a relatfon based upon the

proximity of mothers to the accidentel nature of reproductionr 'ra random

conjunctj-on of eventsrr, and to the lnanlmate foetus, "the zygote has no

soul-. Is'.matter"(p.321). Consequently, he reasons, a myth of motherhood

is constructed, an arbitrary but protectj,ve metaphor which compensates

for "an inability to live with the truth"(0.322). Hbwever, it is in his

encounter with the woman who embodies these qualíties - the progress to

the inanimate, decadence and metaphor - V., in the guíse of the Bad

Priest, that Fausto III is born.

The "confessÍont' ítself is an attempt to articulate this encounter,

but it is an account written with a self-conscious awarendss of the

fictive nature of metaphor and metaphoric constructions, such as "mother-

hood " and hÍstory. The question whether metaphor be "a thrust at truth "

or a lie (Tne Grving of Lot 49rp.95), is a question central- to Pynchonrs

fiction, the whole enterprlse of allegory and, specifically, the defini-

tion of V. - as the Lady V. and the V.-hj-story which Stencil seeks. In

fact, Faustors attempt to write his experience of the Bad Priest, of V.,

constitutes a V.-hlstory. But Fausto takes a highly relativistic approach

to history, assumÍ.ng that reallty simply is and that any conceptualisa-

tion offt 1s metaphoric, formed in ålchemical memory: 'rThe word is, in

sad factr meaningless, based as it is on the false assumption that

identity is single, soul- continuous"(p.30?). In the attempt to overcome

the inevitable alterations made by memory and produce a valid account of

his experience, Fausto works upon the Journals of hls previous person-

allties, lnterpreting, rejecting, then reinterpreting them, trying to

capture an objective truth which constantÌy el-udes his subjective formu-

lationsr He concedes that "The wrÍting itself even constitutes another

rejection¡ anothen rcharacterr added te the past't(p.gOO). Hê 1s left

wÍth a hlstory that ls a "fiction of continuity, the fiction of cause

and effect, the fiction of a humanlzed history endowed with rreason"'

(p.SOO). We must remember that this is the attltude of Fausto IV, who

is sti1l tainted wlth the characterlstÍcs of the non-human Fausto III,

the successor who came into being once Fausto III "passed a certain

leve1 in his slow return to consciousness or humenity"(p.30?), So the

narrative polnt of view of this episode bears the marks of his encounter

with V. And it ls, as we have seen, the nature of V. to encourage an

historical perspectlve which denÍes the capacity of any cognitive mode

to retrieve, reveal or make knowable an historÍca1 continuityr partlcu-

larly a history in which she participates"

V. appears on Ma1ta as the Bad Priest, rumoured to be 'rexcommuni-

cated, confederates with the Dark One"[p.313). The 1Ínk between the Bad

Priest and the previous avatars of V. is established initially Ín the

instruction he provides Elena, Fausto's wife. As in the conception of

Veronlca, the sewer rat, sin i-e cast in metaphorlc form as a pursuing,

evi1 spirit, "al-ien, parasitlc, attached l-lker;a bl-ack.;-s1ug to her sou1"

(p.314). And, foLlowing both Veronica and Vlctoria, the Bad Priest

advises Elena to enter the novitiate, arguing that Christ is her proper

husband, that only he would welcome her "diseaserr: "It had been His

missj-on on earth as now, a spiritual husband in heaven, to know sickness

íntimately, Iòve it, cure it. Thfs was parabLe, the Bäd Priest told hert

metaphor for spiritrs cancer"(p.314). But the prfest does not take into

account the f-i$eral nature of the Maltese language, nor the literal

manner of lnterpretation that it gives rise to. Subsequently Elenat

who assumes sin to be a natural functLon, constantly searches herself

for progressive syrnptoms of thls_disease and forgets al-I l-deas of the

novftiate. Yet what consistent phJ-Iosophy,there is in the Bhd Priest's

l-nstruction centsrs upon advlsing gír1" to ¡".ome nuns and boys to

strive to become like "the rock of thelr ls1and r.. beautlful and soul-

less il.

"God is soulless?" speculated Father Avalanche.

Having created sou1s, He Himself has none? So

that to be llke God we must allow to be

eroded the soul in ourselves. Seek

mÍneral symmetry, for here is eternal

life: the immortality of rock. Plausible.

But apostâs/. rr (p.340 ) .

Encapsul-ated here is the apostasy which V. represents; directing t èt1-

couraging and embodying a decline towards cLosed systems in which

entropy eventuall-y triumphs, deflecting attentÍon away from matters of

the soul, The Maltese children further identify the nature of the Bad

Priest as V., by llkening "hÍmr to dlsease, to the V.-di-sease which we

have seen progressively diagnosed throughout the namative. These

children, "adept at metaphor", interpret the fal-ling bombs of the siege

as "pustules, blemíshes and marks of pestil-ence"(p.339) on the face of

God; but rather than attribute these symptoms to God himself, they are

seen as signs of the tsky's betrayal': "knavery of the skin which could

harbour such gerrns and thus turn so against its divfne owner"(p.339J'

Gonsequentl-y, they transfer to the Bad Priest, "parishless, an alienr',

"a slmiLar infectj.on"(p.339). Here, the disease which is V. is implicitly

related to a satanic, perhaps apocalyptic deslgn - r'slow apocalypse'r -whlch stands dlrectly counter to the GhristÍan conception of God and

hl-s sacred design.

The exÈent to whlch V. has come to embody physfcal-Iy - through

prosthesl-s - the nature of the entropic process whfch she di-rects, is

revealed in the cl-rcumstences of ner deatfr. Trapped beneath a falLen

beam¡ during a bombing raÍd, the curious chil-dren literally dismantle

her; removS.ng first a wig, to reveal a Gruclfixlon tatooed on the scalp,

then an artlflclal foot, followed by a set of fal-se teeth and "a glass

eye wlth the Íris in the shape of a clock"(p.3æ), dÍgging with a

bayonet the star sapphlre from her navel, As Feusto adminlsters the

sacrarnent of Extreme lJrction, she is said to be "past speech", uttering

only cries, non-human cries that sound like "the wind blor,ring past any

dead reed"(p.344). rndeed, v, nowr and as the Bad Priest, is a tholrow

manr; even her corpse is "objectIs co1d, nothing human"[p.344J -about it

at all. It Ís this cold, this encounter, which is the impulse of Fausto's

"confession'r. Its irnmediate effect is to create Fausto [It an indeci-

pherable, gibberlng entity who has "no furthef need of God". Fausto ÏVt

the present writer, stl11 feels God to be 'rat this moment far away"[p.

345). This rel-lgious awareness colors the entire narrative as he writes

it and informs his relativistic approach to metaphor.

So that wh1le others may look on the laws

of physics as legislation and God as a

human form with beard measured in light-

years and nebulae for sandals, Faustors kind

are alone with the task of living in a

universe of things which simply arer and

cloaklng that innate mindlessness with

comfortable and plous metaphor so that the

rpractJ.caL"'ha1f of humanlty may continue

in the Great Lie ... (p.326).

Without the awareness of metaphyslcal forces as real and 6ctiver and

without a conceptlon of language as the medrüum whlch can signify and

rnake apprehenslble these realities, it i; suggested, then history

becomes a series of discrete moments, realfty merely physf-caI facts and

metaphor a lylng form of disguise. ThÍs is preclsely the form of percep-

tion that V. encourages by opposing all coherent cognitiver Linguistict

social and moral systems, by subjecting them to the process of entropic

dissolutlon.

It is the attitude explored in the 'contemporaryr sequence which

is juxtaposed with this V.-episode. Much of the Whole Sick Crewrs

attentlon here is focused upon Esther's pregnancy. 51ab advises an

abortion, arguing that the foetus has no soul, "A complex protein

molecul-e, is all"(p.354)r and responding to Estherrs objectlon that

abortion constltutes murder with: 'r'Yöu've turned R.C. Good show. For

some reason it always becomes fashionable in a decadence"'[p.353)n But

it is to a Cathollcism of V.'s perverse klnd that they subscribe, if at

all; the V.-quallty of thel-r decadence is apparent as they argue 'rl-1ke

a drunk wlth dry heaves: havlng brought up and expeLled all manner of

old words which had always, somehow, sat wrong", they resort to yelling

so that 'rit ceased beiog logical and phony and became emotional and

phony"(p.354J. Lhlike E1ena Majtstral, Esther needs no Bad Priest, no

avatar of V., to advíse abortion, the attitudes of V. have become

lnternallsed, are now a set of common cultural assumptions. And so

Profaner despite the warning from SHOCK and SHROLD, despite his unwill--

ingness to have Rachel prove "inanimate as the re6t"(p.359), still

conceives of women as essentlally lnanimate objects, chemically-controlled

mechanisms, and prays "Someday, please God, there wouLd be an alL-

electric woman. Maybe her name would be Violet"(p.385). Fiè is, unknow-

ingly, an agent of V., depriving others of their humanity through his

mode of perception arid his schlemiht-Ilke inability to gÍve, only to

taker from Fina and Rachel partlcularly. Despite the antagonism of the

lnanimate world, he 1s a closed, partially lnanlmate, sysüem, refusÍng

to participate in any interdependent relationships and satisfied to

slmply asslml-late aspects of others lnto his autonomous system; to be

treated as an obJect of mercy. And lt is only to this extent that he

involves hlmself wtth the Whote Sick Grew.

YËt lt is Profane whom Stencil cbooses to lnvoLve in hls quest

for V., recounting to him the V.-histoiy that he has pleced together,

though in brief! "V. in spain, v. on crete: V. crippled in corfur a

partisan in Asfa Minor. ... in Rotterdam she had commanded the rain to

stop. ft had." AIl the while developing "a certain magic of her own", so

that one of her companions is discovered "discussing the shadows of

clouds with a sheep. Hls hair had become whlte, his mental age roughly

fl-ve. V. had fled."(p.388). In this account, V. approximates the primary

attributes of the Antichrlst: disguise, metamorphosis, the capacity to

defy every natural law, But Stencil does not think of V. as a single

figure, r'Nöt the üúar, nor the social-ist tide which brought us Sovíet

Russia. Those were symptoms, that's a1],"(p'386); yet the etiology of

these "symptoms'r is also the etlology of V., and through the progress of

these historlcal manifestations I'something monstrous had been building".

Profane is also audience to Stencilrs recollection of the fol1ow-

ing V.-episode, set in Paris in 1913. l'lere, Stencilrs source is ForcÉpic

the composer, who remains peripheral to the action, much like the

obJectíve wltnesses of:the earliest V.-episoden whose descrlption of "V"

ín Love" is a "weII-composed and ageless sti11-Iife"[p.a09). Doubt is

cast upon the validity of this reconstructed account not only by

Stencilrs translation of Porcépic's "st11l--1ife" into narrative form

but also by the expllcit naming of v. r añd the manner in which the

narrative names her: "If we've not already guessed, rthe womant i=,

again, the lady V. of Stencilrs mad time-search. No one knew her name in

Paris"(o.4O6). Stencil appears to have become more obvious Ín dealing

wlth the unreliable nature of his V.-information, as he begins to fear

the character of what he may eventually dlscover; "something monstrous"

that he does not want to know. For here in Paris the perverse V.-

Trlnlty that was foneshadowed 1n Florence is realizedo Consequentlyt

Stencfl perceives the flnal trlumph of Vo over Victoria,

that Victoria was being gradual-Iy replaced

by V.; something entirely different,

for whlch the young century had as yet

no name. We all get involved to an

extent in the politics of slow dying,

but poor Victoria had become intimate

also with the Things in the Back Room

Ip .410 ) .

F,le interprets this rpossessioni and its development as the ironic fail-

ure of Victoriars dreams of personal control, of shaping events through

her virtrl, seemingly unaware that its politÍcaI expression, espionage,

has been and will continue to be an important mechanism through which

V. tsr and hence Victoriats, force is manifest in reality. But Ín this

episode, the V.-concepts whlch have been explored throughout the narr-

ative as the linguistic, cognÍtive and social consequences of V. rs

expanding influence¡ ãrB dealt with as they relate to sexual-Íty, forming

the sexual dimension of the emerging V.-metaphysic. For it is in her

relationship with l*lélanie lrHeuremaudit, ',1a fátiche'!, that V., havj-ng

progressed from virgin to brÍde, assumes the status of 'Mothern. And as

nMotheri, V. corresponds not to the Ehristian, Idea of God-the-Father,

but more to the Paraclete cast in feminine form, a pervasive force,

The suitability of Mélanie as the partner to V. rs visual fetish

is revealed in ltaguers refl-ectlons, in his conception of MéIanie as a

kind of mirror reflecting such a pervasive force; a "ghost", "rGast in

the image of what? Not God. rr. his name.ls unknovfi.0r if known then he

ls Yaweh and we are aII Jews, for no one will ever speak it."'(p.399),

Her tendency to function as a mirror is combined wlth a sexuaL prefer-

ence for the inanimate, seen lnltialLy in her simulatl-on of intercourse

wÍth a plaster dummy, which she watches in an overhead mirror, And her

relationship with V. - described by Itague as an automaton - whilst of

this kind, is further removed from the physical, based upon a purely

visual fetish. So the Trinity which V. novl embodÍes is relfied in the

image of "V. on the pouf, watching Mélanie on the bed; Mélanie watching

herself in the mÍrror; the mirror-lmage perhaps contemplating V. from

time to time."(p.409). It is a relationship which expresses the I'deca-

dence" that Itague perceives as their historÍcal context:

'rA decadence ... is a falling away from what

is human¡ and the further we fall the less

h¡..man we become. Because we are less humant

we foist off the humanity we have lost on

lnanimate obJects and abstract theorl-es. "[p.a05).

But It is more decadent than thís; for rather than anthropomorphise

inert objects, Mélanie and V. impersonate the ínanimate. Yet both forms

of decadence serve the same ultimate design: the annexing of the human

by the "Kingdom of Death"(p.411), V. recognises "the fetish of Mélanie

and the fetish of herself to be one. As all inanÍmate objectsr to the

one victimized by them, are aliken(p.410). And so their relationship

represents "the single melody, banal and exasperating" of Romanticism

at its most decadent: l-lebestod¡ "'the act of love and the act of death

are one'"(p,410).

In this way, I'the Kingdom of Death 1s served by fetish-construct-

ions like V.rs¡ which represent a klnd of inflltratlon."(p.411). It is

the infil-tration of present reality, or "the world as lt has evolved"t

by another wor1d, a 'rparallel socÍety", whÍch is most fu11y realised as

the rtourist-metaphysici. In fact, the narrator clalms that V. has

dÍscovered Iove in the "tourist'r wor1d, a two-dlmensionaL world com-

prísed only of "skln'r, devold of any depth or spJ.ritual dimension -tlsoul tt.

Thls fs a curious country, populated only by

a breed calfed "tourists", Its landscape is

one of ínanimate monuments and buíldings;

near-inanimate bamen, taxi-driversr bellhopst

guides..r More than this lt is two-dimensional,

as is the Street, as are the pages and maps of

those IlttIe red handbooks. rr. Tourism thus

is supranatlonal, like the Cathollc Churcht

and perhaps the most absolute communion we

know on earth r , . they share the same landscapes t

suffer the same inconveniences; live by the same

pe11-ucid time-scale, They are the Streetrs own

Ip.4OB-9).

Here, the maJor V.-words of the narrative are syncretically related,

and so reveal themselves to be aspects of the V.-metaphysic, identified

now as the "Kingdom of Death" which, through V., is a function of mod-

ern history: the 'rstreet of the 20th Gentury'r. Vforking, initiallyt

through the structure of the Cathollc Church, V. has created, or symbol-

ises the creatlon of, an alternate "communion" which possesses its own

cognltÍve or perceptual mode - that of the tourist - a characteristic

preference for the artfficlal- or cosmetíc; its own political philosophy,

based upon futuristic dreams or "hothouserr memories and both realised

through the deviousness of espiònage or the violence of revolution; in

short, a communion expressed through decadence and predícated on a

clear, and partially wlLIed, progress towards the non-huflìafl¡ The

reaction auray from present or l-lved reality, which is the basic impulse

beneath this progress, Ls a reaction 1n the direction of death. And as

the narrator polnts out, the establishment of 'rthe inanimate Kingdom"

will eventually include the personal death of V. Perhaps in response to

some awareness of this, the narrator speculates, she would become t'a

purely deterrnÍned organism, an automaton, constructed, only quaintly,

of human flesh"(p.41I). For the "Kingdom of Death" is served by the

very fear of death itself and the attempt to preserve the body through

prosthesis or by incorporating bits of inert matter, which resist decay.

But, of course, we have already witnessed the physical death of V., and

in this near-inanimate form. Thus, lt is suggested, the establishment

of "the inanimate Kingdom" on earth, in contemporary societyr has

reached a late stage.

The viol-ence which is an important aspect of v'rs temporal man-

ifestation, greets the perfol:rnance of Porcépic's ball-et, Rape of the

Chinese VÍrqins (L'En1èvement des Vierges GhinoÍses). Here, the "Sacri-

fice of the Virgin" 1s reallsed 1-iterally, in a fatal confusion of the

Iiteral and metaphoric, performance and realityn as Mélanie fall-s

victim to the inanlmate: 'rshe might have become confused in this fetish-

world and neglected to add to herself the one inanimate object that

would have saved her."(p,414). Consequently, she is impaled¡ in what

William Plater reads as a ritualistic sacrifice to Vn Performed in

August, he ínterprets this ballet as a version of the Feast of the

Virgin's AssumptÍon, also celebrated Ín August, which marks V.ts final

transition to the status of "8ueen"13: henceforth to reign over deca-

dence Ín Malta and Southwest Africa, wherever her kingdom, the Kingdom

of Death, should establish itself.

The extent of her infÌuence, in 1956, is apperent in a world

"going to he11", with "The joIl-y, jolly balloon ... going up,,(p.434),

and perhaps symbollzed, in Valletta, by ',[il-roy,,: a schlemihl, a meta-

phor whlch has ingratiated ltself wlth the human world and 'rsprung into

life, ln truth, as part of a band-pass filter"[p.436). The nanimated",

paradoxical-ly, springs into "11-fe" as a ptace of machinery and, as ',a

masterful disguise" perhaps hlnts at but stilL conceals the metaphoric

nature of humanLty itself: disguising an essential inanimatfon. The

confused quallty of metaphor in a V.-domlneted world Ís refLected in

Stencil's continuing inability to define her precise slgnificance.

After recounting to Fausto his accumufated V.-history, Stencil suspects

that ''it did add up only to the recurrence of an lnitial and a few dead

obJects"(p.445). But that this 1s not his only suspicíon, nor the most

sincere one, is revealed in his perceptlon of events as "ordered into

an omínous logic"(p.449), which may be the "something monstrous" that he

has seen buildlng in rnodern history. Gertainly, his "obsession'r becomes

more desperate, more fearful, as he senses the presence of V. pervading

the streets of Val1etta. He can explain Profane's sudden fever only as

possession, by the Devil, by V. Fausto refuses to perform the exorcism

requested by Stencll, observl-ng that 'r One would have to exorcise the

city, the island... The continents, the world.0r the iùestern part"[p.

451). He thus appears to confirrn Stencilrs suspicion that V. exists as

an objective force, operating through history and pervading reality

Ii-ke a malignant cancer; the suspicion that

V.rs is a country of coincidence, ruled by

a ministry of myth, whose emissaries haunt

this century's streets. Porcépic, Mondaugen,

Stencil père, this Majistral, Stencil fils.

ff the coincidences are real- then Stencil

has never encountered hlstory at aJ-I, but

something more appalling (p.450J.

BLrt Stencj-I, finally, is unable to declde the ontol-ogical status of V.,

andrbe bhe a subJectlve "adventure of the mlnd"(p.61) or an obJective

reality, he refuses to articulate hls suspicion, the concl-usion of his

quest, in any terrns clearer than these. Like the "lightning-heads'r of

Gravityrs Rainbow. Stencil

worl-d r a V.-rvofld.

possesses an fntuitive knowledge of another

Between congruent and identical there seems

to be another class of look alike that only

finds the lightning-heads. Another world laid

down on the previous one and to all appearances

no dlfferent. Ha-@! But the lÍghtning-struck

know, all right! Even if they may not know

they know. 14

simllarly, stencil knows V. in a way whích cannot be expressed through

any of the cognltiVe forrns explored in the narrative; because¡ as Ï

arguer of the erosive effect of V. upon those systems. But it is aLso a

wilfu} refusal by Stencil to decide, to choose between the possibitrit-

íes and formulate a dafínltion of V. His refusal to do so is based upon

fear, fear that the "sense of animateness" he discovers through the

quest will disappear with lts concl-usion; the fear that it wil-1 be

revealed as only a W of life after all and in reality an elaborate

disguise of essential lnanimateness. 5o Stencll leaves Malta for Stock-

holm, stlIl searching for V.-cIues in what ls becorning an increasingly

futile quest, As a result of his refusal to end the searchr to come to

some definition of V., the plot structure 1É attenuated: the epiphanic

moment does not arrlve; it is left to the reader to determine the nature

of the narrativers spiritual dimension. And so it is, in the manner

characteristic of aL1egory, open-ended, structured in such a way which

demands thLs kínd of response from the reader.

But a movement towards closure, towarUs defining the spiritual or

ontol-oglcaf nature of V.¡ 1s made in the Epilogue. Herer the narrative

approaches V. more closely than Stencll- ever dares, through the point

of vlew of Sidney Stencll¡ and llkewlse, the key V.-words are brought

into a closer conJunction than previously. Particularly, the nature of

metaphor and its relatlon to the epistemological- status of the V.-

disease are discussed in expllcit terms. The sailor Mehemet, for

instance, claims that the worldrl-ike an lndividual, is dying of old age;

that the only change possible is toward death, in a constant progression

of decay, and that civllization and the crlses of polltics simply dis-

guise this inexorable process. It is Sidney'Stencil, holever, who casts

this development ln the terrns of a di-sease,

r r. suppose instead sometùme between 1859

and 1919, the world contracted a disease

whlch no one ever took the trouble to

diagnose because the symptoms were too

subtle - blending in with the events of

history, no different one by one but

altogether - fatal [p.461).

David Richter has identifled the significance of 1859 as the year in

which bbth lclarx I s Critiq ue of Political Economy and Darwínrs Origin of

the Species were published, thus marking the inceptlon of a mechanistic

lmage of man and soclety,lS This conception of humanity characterises

all- of the symptoms of V. ts manifestatÌons, but Mehemet dismisses the

notion of a disease progressively revealed in hLstory, unless it be seen

as a metaphor for age, a metaphor which humanises the process, brínging

lt "down to a size you can look at and feel comfortable"[p.461). How-

everr Stencil flnds the ldea of old age more comfortable, the notion

that the earth w111 continue on and dLe l-n 1ts own time, that "The

Arrnegeddon had swept past, the professionsls whord survived had received

no blessi-ng, no gift of tongues"(p.461). Thls is tlre attltude of hj.s

collegues, that the recent War was "a neyv and rare disease which has

now been cured and conquered for ever"(p.461)¡ now I'an historical

account" rather than rrthe Nameless Horror"(p.459).

But Stencil continues to see the marks of this diseaser oId age

or entropy, manlfest in the world around hÍm and formul-ated in V.-words.

So in the poIltical activity of the century, 'rthe real- present'r, 'rthe

once-respectable Golden Mean" is supplanted by a "double vision. Bight

and Left; the hothouse and the street"(p.468); arenas in which'rmob

violence, 1lke tourlsm, is a kind of communion"[p,4?l), uniting "lonely

souIs, however heterogeneous" in a common opposition to what is. Within

this context, Stencll has become l-ncreaslngly despaÍring of the possibil-

ity of reaching any understandlng of a "situation"; belÍeving now that

only the anatomization of every soul and every individual history in-

volved in 1t offers any hope of eventual comprehension, that accreting

accounts of the "sltuatlon" are inadequate. And so he develops an apoc-

alyptic attitude towards hlstory, particularl-y in terms of the involve-

ment of the Gatholic Church in political crises.

She ,arúted a Thlrd KJ.ngdom. Vlolent overthrol is

a Ghristian phenomenon.

The matter of a Paraclete's comingr the

comforterr the dove; the tongues of flamer the

gift of tongues: Pentecost. ThÍrd Person of the

Trlnity. None of 1t was implausible to StencÍ1.

The Father had come and gone. fn politicaÌ termst

the Father was the Prince; the single leaderr the

dynamic figure whose virtù used to be e determinant

of history. Thls had degeneratta to the Son,

genÍus of the liberal- love-feast which had produced

1848 and late1y the overthrow of the Gzars. lVhat

next? llhat Apocalypse?

Especlall-y on Ma1ta, a matrlarchal island.

Woul-d the Paraclete be also a mother? Comfortert

But what gift of communlcati-on

ever come from a woman. ... (pr4?2).

In these reflectlons, Stencil summarfzes the development of V. r from

'rvirgin't working through faith, in a manner similar to that of the

Son; to 'tbride" and incorporating the element of virtù, whÍch Victoria

Wren had hoped wouLd be a 'rdeterrninant of history"i to "Motherd and

It qu"sn'r. That these latter aspects may be different names for the same

thlng - a femlnine and satanlc Paracleter a gglgilg infernus rather

th"n g¡;!5iþgg sanctus, an "Anti-Ho1y Ghosttr rather than Antichrist - is

suggested throughout the narrative, but more speclfically by the sudden

appearances of V" as Veronlca Manganese juxtaposed with Stencil's

musings. Her "gift of tongues" is an inanimate vocabulary; her 'rcomfort"

reserved for those like DrAnnunzio and lülussolinÍ who can further her

design. .

As he recognises Veronica as Victoria Wrenr Stencil begins to see

the convergence, in her, of the symptoms of his historical V.-disease:

aAbsolute upheaval ... that is your way, Víctoria. 'r And he recalls the

riot in Florence which forrnecl the scene for the birth of V.; the narr-

ative only now reveals the involvement of Victoria in that violencet

.. r he had dragged her away from an unarmed

poLlceman, whose face she was flaying wlth

pointed fingernails. Hysterical- girl¡ tattered

velvet. ßiot was her element, as surely as

this dark room, al-most creepÍng with arnassed

obJects. The street and the hothouse; in V,

were resolved, by some magicr the two extremes.

She frlghtened hlm (p.48?),

So, "hothouse" and 'rstreet", violence, "an obsession with bodily in-

corporating little bits of inert matter"[p.488), decadence, tourÍsm,

all come together in thls woman. And, as Hugh Godolphin will later,

Stencil becomes her victim; relinquishing his now tenuous hold on the

"reaL present", to enter V.'s'rhothouse-time"(p.489), permanently.

However, the identlfication of Veronica, and hence all of the

historical V.-personae, as V. does not define the nature of V. Even

Stencil, havlng known her, wrltes in his journali "There is more behind

and inside V. than any of us had suspected. Not who but what: what is

she"fp.53). But an analogy is suggested between V. and Mara, which may

be significant. Like Astarte, the figure-head of Mehemetrs xebec, Mara

is a goddess of love and death, thus related to V. through her assoc-

iation with Venus; Maltese for twoman", also like V., "disguise is one

of her attributes"(p.a62); "she once had access to the entire island

and the waters as far as the fishing banks off Lampedusa"(pp.461-62),

but is constråined to haunt Xaghriet Mewwija, on which Valletta is sit-

uated. Mehemet recounts her story to Stencl-I as tlrey approach Malta, and

in connexion with his conceptÍon of o1d age as the worldrs'rdísease".

'ìBeware of Mara, " the old sailor said then.

"Gaurdian spirit of Xaghriet Mewwija. .. r

She's restless. She will fÍnd ways to reach

out from Valletta ... there are more úvays than

one to consummation" (p.465).

So the implicit question: is V. an avatar of Mara, her historlcal man-

ifestatlons Mara ln her many disguÍ-ses? Gertainly, the V.-clues gathered by

Herbert Stencil all tend to a center which is Mal-ta; Sidney Stencil

perceives a central- quality to Val1etta, a place enclosed, as if for

quarantÍne: 'rNo time- in Va11etta. No history, all history at once ... "

(p.a8a), like the "dead centerrr of historyrs "carousel". The most

conclusive evidence for a definitive link between v. and Mara is the

circurnstance of Stencilrs death. BÞlonging now to V., he nonetheless

leaves Malta, aboard Mehemet's xebec.

Draw a line from Malta to Lampedusa. GalI lt

a radius. Somewhere in that circler on the

evening of the tenth, a waterspout appeared

and lasted for fifteen minutes. Long enough

to lift the xebec fifty feet, whlrfing and

creaking, Astarte's throat naked to the

cloudless weather, and slam it down again'into

a piece of the Mediterranean whose subsequent

surface phenomena .. . showed nothing at all

of what came to 1ie beneath, that quiet June

day [p.492J.

Like Mara, this latest conquest of V, rs does not proceed past "the

invisible circle centered at Xaghriet Mewwija with Lampedusa on the

rím"(p,462). Perhaps a victim of "pure accident. Fish? Mermaid? Scy1la,

Charybdis, wha. Who knew how many femal-e monsters this Med harbored?"

(p.Æ2ì; or perhaps Stencil ls prevented from ever reveallng the hature

of V., such as he knows 1t.

The narrative approaches the problem no closer, Llke Hèrbert

Sp encer in hls First PrlncípLes. Herbert Stencil attempts to deffne ar¡

rrAbsolute Being" which is lneffable, fÍna1Iy unknowable and whlch canr

only be approached through experiential data or the laws of tts man-

lfestatl-ons. Stenci1 himself refuses to decide the 'tenor' of the meta-

phoric rvehicler which is V,, the spiritual slgnificator which informs

V, rs many temporal signs. Yet the narrative itself explores her several-

key concepts, analyzing each and then syncreticall-y relating them to

the Lady V. But wlthout a clear interÞretative relationship between

the narrative and its sacred pretext apparent, without a spiritual cot¡,-

text, the interpretation of these signs becomes a hazardous busirress.

Particularly when the narrative focuses upon the forces of EviT-¡ forces

which are expressed 1n their very resistance to coherent cognitive

systems. So the nature of V. is ambiguously Located in-r the entropic

nature of the signs which manlfest her, and the apocalyptic nature of

the process*tfich she aopears to represent: soulless rrcommuniorr,'r, deca-

dence, 'rtourism'r, rskini as opposed to- "souln, violence and disguise or

prosthesls¡ all are sub-categories of a pervasive tendency, towards the

non-human and an entropic homogeneity. History itself is the figural

medi'umr of the revelation of this pattern, but the progressive confusion

of linguistic categoriies, of the distÍnction between the spf-ritual and

literal meanings of metaphor, which are the inevitable consequences of

entropy. resist the consurnmation of the fÍgural proeess: the establish-

ment of a signifying relationship between temporal signs and a spiritual

semiotlc pattern, which then alfows knowledge of the metaphysical force

inforrning histor^y and language.

A pretextual- relatlonship, of a kind, is establislied between the

narrative and the events of þocalypser but it 1s anr obllque and highly

ambivalent relatlonshlp. The paraÞhrase of part of the Koran, by Gebrail,

the BÍblica1 framework of V. rs development and the narrativers frequent

references to the possible identlty of V.. as a satanlc Paraclete, con-

spfre tor suggest that the entropì.c process which she symbolizes is, in

factr Apocalypse; that "Armageddon, ltad swept past", that V. as iQueenr

reigns over the Great Tribulatlon whlch is the society of the Whole Slck

Grew. Within thls context, no flnal cataclysm is imminent; instead, the

inexoreblre progress of V. rs design will produce an-, eventual rhcct-deathrr.

soundlng catacLysmic, but in effect the simpl-e exhaustlonr of alL avail-

able energy in a final decadence. In Gebrail's terms: *The desert [i=)

prophecy enough of the Last Day"Ip.84).

The dtfficul-ty of knowing or perceivLng this prophecyr howevert

is a definitive aspect of V. and, i.n fact, of all Pynchon's l!g.jÆ'

Consequently¡ Richard Patteson concludes that

Pynchonrs fictlonal territory mlght be

sald to lie along the perimeter whlch

divfdes knowledge from non-knowledge.16

This perJ-meter Ls amblguously defined. But the attempt to expand itr to

expand the "knowable" and the "slgnifiable", is the ongolng effort of

Pynchon's nanratives. As is the exploration of metaphor, and words in

generaì., as the temporal signs of lnvisibl-e realítíes. V conducts this

exploratlon ín a narrative form which corresponds, ín terms of its plot

structure, to the,rgenerlc structure of a1legory. Actually, the "fic-

tlonal terrl-tory" which Patteson identifies ís the reaLm of the alleg-

oric investigation into the relatlonship between knowabler though

"fallenil or entropic, temporal signs and Lneffable spiritual- realitÍes.

V is analogous, particularly, to trre structure of Melvj-I1ers The

Gonfldence-Man , where this llnguistl-c, signifying relationship is

complicated by the ambiguous and distanced nature of the pretext. One

consequence of the dilemma thus created is the Íncreased burden of the

reader, who l-s obllged to complete the lnterpretative quest begun by

the heror Another result 1s the i-ncreasing|. atUivalence of metaphor as a

slgnifying mode; I'A thrust at truth and a lie'r. Both are problems -

pretextual and metaphorlc - whlch are further exp lored in The Cryins of

þ.!19, as Oedipa attempts to establLsh the t¡pological structure of

the Trystero.

CHAPTER THREE

THE TYPOLOGY OF THE TRISTEBO

The initial stages of Oedipars typological quest coincide with

the inception of an intuitive, figural mode of perception. Upon entering

San Narciso - which will- form the civj-c nexus of her proliferating

clues - the cityrs topography immediately evokes an analogy with 'rher

flrst printed circuit";

The ordered swirl of houses and streetst

from this high ang1e, sprang at her now

with the same unexpected, astonishing

clarity as the circuit card had! c..

there were to both patterns a hieroglyphic

sense of concealed meaning, of an intent

to communlcate (p"13).

It is this impulse to read from the semiotics of her wor1d, to identify

repetltions of uncertain significance, that l-eads Oedipa onward in her

quest, towards'!a11 manner of revelations"(p.9). And yet, a visible or

merely apparent correlation between realms of being does not necessariLy

signify the existence of a provÍdential design, of an objectively real

center of signification, as Oedipa is soon to Iearn, In fact, the

primary object of her quest is to be some validating authorfty, a

l'transcendental signifteC' whlch would legislate the meaning of the

slgns that she encounters by making precise distinctions between the

elements of analogies, the literal and metaphoric references of the

wordr the significance of repetltion; an authoritative text - or pretext

- which will explaLn,her worl-d and her re$.ation to it.

For Oedipa seeks something more than a l-i.nguistic'rcenter'r to the

free play of temporal signs, She seeks her own identityr the "kynde

knowynge" which Will and Redcrosse develop concomitant with an under-

standing of the revealed Word and their places within a transcendental

scheme. Peter Abernathy has recognised the characteristicall-y allegoric

nature of this search for identity, calling Oedipa's a "Spenserian

quest'r :

a search for the dragon, Tristero, that will

give her identity through its conquest, a

search which makes use of the machlnery of

al-legory - "f1at" characters, suggestive

names, a task which becomes more clearly

defined as the action progressesr a "moraL"..1tone etcì.

Although he obviousLy conceives of allegory as a form somehot¿ synon-

ymous with the moral- fable, still Abernathy hits upon a telling analogy:

whilst The Cryinq of Lot 49 ls not a fabl-istic allegory of the kind

constructed through aIl-egoresÍs, it is a figuralistic narrative in a

manner akin to The Faerie Sueene and , in factr to all figural a11eg-

ories. Like them itr añd the heroine, search for a transcendental

center which informs history and language, and for a way of knowj-ng itt

of making it comprehensible to 'falleni or entropic understandings. So

the catalyst which transforrns a suburban housewífe into an allegoric

heroine is a text; Inverarityrs will supplants her prevJ-ous passivity

or iwil-L-lessnessr, requiring that she exert her own will in the attempt

to execute hÍs.2

InactivLty or passivity - Stencilrs malaise before he discovers

the V.-enigma - and a deep dissatÍsfaction with it, are the forces which

initially motivate the quest. In Mexico with fnverarlty, she had seen a

painting entitled "Bordando eI Manto Terrestre" ["Embroiderers of the

Terrestrial Blanket") which depicts a number of frall girIs, prisoners

in a círcular tower

r.. embroldering a kind of tapestry which

spllled out the slit windows and into a

vold, seeking hopelessly to fill the voÍd

. r. and the tapestry was the world. OedÍpat

perverse, had stood ln front of the peinting

and cried (p.IO).

She reeds the trlptych as a parable of her own condition, her sense of

insulatlon or isolation from the world. Yet the "magic, anonymous and

malignant" which'rkeeps her where she is"(p.11), is of uncertain onto-

logical and epistemological status. It is articulated by the narratlve

what had remalned yet had somehow, before

this¡ stayed a$/â/r There had hung the sense

of buffeilng, lnsulatlon, she had notj-ced

the absence of an lntensity, as 1f watching

a movie, Just perceptibl-y out of fooust

that the proJectlonlst refused to flx (p.10).

Existing at the lnterface between presence and absencer it locates

0edipa on the perimeter whÍch divides meanlng from non-meaningr knowl-

edge from non-knowledge. But her instinct¡ and the impulse of the narr-

ative is to determine and give meaning to thls'rformless magic"(p.11);

her only alternative is to 1l-ve in a world refracted through self-

pltying ùears. And so begíns the search for an interpretative structure

whfch will make this force intelliglble, a cognÍtive form which will

bring Ít into a condition of rneaning, present to OedÍ-pars knowledge.

Like V, the narrative addresses the problem of finding a valid

mediu¡m for discovering and communicating knowledge; but rather than

organize itself around the questlon of the observatl-onal nexus - the

point of view - it expilores a number of psychologlcal, cognitive modes:

sollpsism, paranoia and narcfssism. The reason for this move away from

formal lnterpretative structures towards perceptual perspectives is not

far to seek - unlike V, The Crying of Lot 49 begins wlth the assumption

that a signÍfÍcant correspondence between material- phenomena or tem-

poral signs and invisible spirltual realltles will be establlshed

subjectively; that the perceived analogical pattern and lts transcenden-

ta1 signifier have only a potential obJective exlstence. In this wayt

the capacíty of language to generate either true understanding or a

corruptÍon of understandlng is more directly confronted than it was by

the earlier nerrative. For although thÍs painted tower, and Oedipars

intuitlon that she Ís somehow represented by ltr suggest a nascent

solipsJ-sm on her part, it functions also as her Tower of Babel. It is

from this polnt Ln the narrative that Oedipa 1s introduced to ling-

uistic difference; the differentiation of Language into languages. The

rcharacters' which she encounters tend to inhabit dÍscrete fields of,

dfscourse; each resides wlthin a prívate universe of signiflers, each

ls lnformed by its own slgnÍflcator. And these centers of meaning are

almost invarÍabIy reducibLe to the self - whether the paranoic,

sollpsistlc or narclssl-stlc self - and are llmited by it.

Gontemplating the analogÍcaI quality of San Narclso, Oedipa

suspects that ttwords were belng spoken", but ton some other frequency"

(p.13), in an aural space to whLch her ear 1s not attuned. Exclusion

from "the rrellglous lnstant', whatever lt mtght have bÞen"(p.13), her

peripheral perceptlon of lt, evokes another analogy. This time it is

the image of her disk jockey husband, Mucho, separated by soundproof

glass from his colleague's "movements stylized as the handling of chrismt

censer, chalice might be for a holy man"(p.13), isolated from the

"faithful" who tune into the voice, "looking inr know5-ng that even if

he could hear it he couldn't believe in i.t"[p.13). The image reifies

her sense of exclusion from a religious field of discourse; its lines

are drawn with Oedipa located on the outside, able to perceive only'the

echo of meaning. And so she arrives at the motel 'rEcho Gourts", its

sign featuring a nymph with a face "much like Oedipa's"(p'IA). There is

a suggestion, sustained throughout the narrative, that Oedipat like the

nymph, has been doomed to repeat endlessly the same words; in her caser

to see the word rTristero'r echoed in signs all around her, but signif-

icant only in terms of herself.

Another element is added to her emerging analogical system by the

map of Fangoso Lagoons, a housing estate which forrns part of Inverarity's

business holdlngs. As it flashes onto the teLevision screenr Oedipa

draws a surprised breatlr,

Some immediacy was there againr some promise

of hierophany: printed circuit, gently curving

streets, private access to the water, Book of

the Deadr ..r (p.18).

"Hierophany"

1e@' to

is the terrn coined by Mirceq Eliadet in The Sacred and the

From the most elementary hierophanY .. ¡ to

the supreme hÍerophany ... there is no

solution of contLnuity. In each case we are

confronted by the same mysterious act - the

"designate the act of manifestatj-on of the sacred":

manifestation of someth!-ng of a wholly

different order, a reality that does not

belong to our worldrin objdcts that are

an integral part of our natural 'l profane'l

wor1d. 3

0edipa is granted - or perhaps grants herself - only the promi-se of

such a manifestatÍon, not the event itself, which compounds her cog-

nitive dilemma by further precluding the possibility of establishing

some objective continuity, whích would indicate the nature of the

invisible forces with which she is confronted. The difficulty of iden-

tifying something which is entirely'rother'r, which exists Ín an aLien

space-tÍme conti-nuum, is comically revealed by the game of "Strip

Botticelli" that Oedipa plays with Metzger.

The fi1m, whose ending she tries to guess, is atemporal and omnÍ-

temporal - like the divine f igural pattern - rrr j-n an air+onditioned

vault at one of the Hollywood studios, light can,t fatigue it, it can,

be repeated endIessly."'(p.20). It is not subject to the limitations of

temporal time: the sequence of its events, and its conclusion, have

been determined 1n advance, locked in a protective vault they will

exist indefinltely. But Oedipa can know them onry by watchlng the

sequentiaL unfolding of the fiLm, only as ít exists in her space and

fime and the perspective which these provide. Metzger, the child star

of Cashlered, is of course famillar with its plot; singing in harrnony

to "Baby lgor's Song'r, he reproaches Oedipa for not joining irr, '!Ididn't knowr"(0.18) is her reply. she cannot join.in the song because

she doesnrt know the words - precisely the dilemma which the Tristero

will present to her. She lacks an interpretative structure which will

make its si-gns 1egib1e, whüch w111 províde access to an anterior source

of meaningn As Ít is, she must'buyt clues to the moviers conclusion:

from Metzger, by removing an article of clothing for each. In the

bathroom, where she dons every piece of clothing she has, in preparation

for the 'rStrip Bottice11i", she knocks over an aerosol can u¡hich sudd-

enly begins to atomize, flying about the closed roomr with violent and

dangerous speed.

The can knew where J-t was going, she

sensed, or something fast enough, God or

a digital machúne might have computed in

advance the compLex web of its travel;

but she wasn't fast enough, and knew only

that Ít might hit them at any moment (p.23).

It is an anterior source of this kind that Oedipa seeks - r'God or a

dÍgita1 machine" - which has determined in advance the meaning of her

enigmatic c1ues, the Tristero signs that she perceives ín temporal

terms whilst suspecting that they are atemporal or omnitemporal in

nature.

The narrative designates this "night's infideì-ity with [/ietzger't

(p.28) as a possible beglnníng to the end of her encapsulation in her

tower. Gertainly, her experience of cinematic atemporality and the

rogue aerosol prefigure aspects of the quest to come; but the encounter

with Metzger also sensitizes her to the concept of conspiracyr Her

initiaL reaction to hÍs handsome appearance, I'They, sornebody up there,

were putting her on. ft had to be an actor'r(p.16), develops qulckly

into the suspicion of 'ra plot, an elaborate, seductionr p.]É"[p.ta), rt

is the conspiretorial quality of the Tristero which "would come to haunt

her most, perhaps; the way it fittedrlogÍcallyrtogether"(p.28): to a

V.-like ominous 1ogic. What she is partlcul-arIy sensitized to, however,

is language, inscrlbed signs and words. So she notices the misprint on

an other\ryise "ordinary Muchoesque envelope": "REPORT ALL OBSCENE [4AIL

TO YOUR POTSIvIASTER"(p.30). In what will become almost a habit, she

questions the meaning of this unfamiliar word, confessing her inability

to read it. More important though, is her questioning of "ÌYASTE" and

its enigmatic syrnbol - soon to be identified as a mark of the Tristero -which she discovers inscribed on a toílet waIl. Instinctively, she

reads it as something more than innocent graffit ir copying it down

with the thought, "God, hieroglyphics"(p.34). Succinctly she describes

what the Tristero will become for her: a difficult linguistic, symbolic

puzzle - hieroglyphics discovered in obscurer ând often unexpected

texts,

The problem of recuperating meaning, textual or otherwise, which

is subject to hÍstorical distortion is underlined by Mike Fallopian's

"prosel-ytizing" for the Peter Pinguid Society: "one of these right-wing

nut outfits"(p,31), with a tendency toward paranoia. The politics of

this group derive from what was possibly the first Russo-American,mil-

Ítary confrontation; but this is established only as an ambiguous poss-

ibility. This event, central to their raison d'être , is narrated by

Fallopian in an exaggerated conditional mode, Textual sources, which

would otherwise verify the historical accuracy of his particularrretrievali, only add to its ambivalence. Yet he accepts the notion of

semantic relativity, the fact that "motion is relative'r and the

i-ndeterminate nature of written reports. So the "9th March, 1864" is

"a day now held sacred by all Peter Pinguid Society membersrr, even

though what actually happened on that day "is not too clear"[p.32). Its

sanctity j-s achieved and preserved through belief, a leap of faith

which makes the ideological system subJectively true, rather than

through any 'objective form of authentication. As Fallopian explains:

"We dontt try to make scripture out of it"(p.32). Stj-II, the dialectic

between Marxism and industrial capitalism which he sees working through

the exemplary career of Peter Pinguid is assumed to reveal truth;

unlike the opposing Birch Society, whom he accuses of thinking in terrns

of "Good guys and bad guys", Fall-opian believes that he is privy to

some "underlying truth", the "creeping horror" inherent in the dialec-

His capacity to believe in a central {truth'r despite the uncertain

status of its surrounding evidence should stand as a paradigm for

Oedipa; as should his synthesising ability which extends into the - soon

to be signifÍcant - area of postal monopolies.

He found it beyond simple coincidence that

in of all years 1861 the federal government

should have set out on a vigorous suppression

of . r. independent mail routes .. r He savl it

all as a parable of power, its feedíngt

growth and systematic abuse (p,35)"

To this coincidence or correlation Fallopian's essentially paranoid

mode of perceptÍon introduces a secondary leveI of discourser a comm-

entary: a conspiracy. In the face of acknowledged relatj-vism¡ his

interpretation of what are potentially discrete events - the Civil l{ar

and the postal- reforrn movement - reveals again the "same creepi-ng

horror"(p.æJ. Thj.s, for him, serves as a center of meaning, to end or

çcloser the free play of historical signification by deterrnining the

meaning of signs¡ and in such a way that a determinate semantic system

is formed, a system which manifests his "creeping horror" as a parable

of power. In the manner characteristic of paranold cognitive forrnsr it

is tautological; but such is the consequence of a perceptual mode which

-locates the individuaL, subjective, consclousness as the sole Locus of

meaning, This is Oedipars dilemma: the possibility thatr apart from the

echoes of the word'rTristero'r, she may be the only linking feature in a

series of arbitrary coincidences.

Still it is a dilemma which she does not initiall-y recognisen

Fallopían's notion of an active political principle working through

history suggests turo possible, opposed yet both objective, modes of

being for the Tristero: the active or the passive; in her personal terms,

the irrelevance which would permit co'existence or a compellingr urgent

relevance demanding of her some significant response. So that if the

'rbreakaway gowns, net bras, jeweled garters and G-strings of historical

figuratioh"(p.36) should be stripped away from the Tristero, revealing

it "in j-ts terrible nakedness", the narrative speculates,

Vrlould it smile, then, be coy, and u,ould it

flirt away harml-essly backstage, say good

night ... and feave her in peace? 0r woul-d

it instead, the dance ended, come back dov¡n

the runu'ay, its luminous stare locked into

Oedipa's, smile gone malign and pitiless;

bend to her alone among the desolate rows

of seats and begin to speak words she never

wanted to hear? (p.36).

Any solution to thi-s question, the temporal nature of the Tristerot

woul-d not however solve the epistemologj-qal problem created by its

ontological ambiguity - whether it is objectively or subjectively real

as either the source of meaning for Oedipars enigmatic hierogl-yphics

or a discoverable motive behind coincidental- hlstorical events.

As she delves further into the complexities of Inverarityrs

estate, Oedipa becomes aware of another coincidencer one which will

lead to a literalizing of the metaphoric Tristero 'performancen. At

Fangoso Lagoons, obJect of her earlier analogical "hierophany"¡ she

encounters Manny dl Presso, a paranold wlth good reason to be paranoidt

who is pursued apparently by the Gosa Nostra. The subJect of thls

partlcular altercation ls bones: the bones of AmerÍcan 6I's harvested

by dl Presso's cl-ient from Lago dt Pietà and later sold to one of

Inverarity's subsidlaries, where they were reduced to charcoal for use

in a filter program. Listenlng in to di Presso's brlef - his client's

case against the Inverarlty estate - are the Paranoids, who are quick

to rel-ate 1t to 'rthat i11, 111 Jacobean revenge play"¡ The Courier's

fr"-q@: 'rThe same kind of klnky thlng, you know. Bones of lost

battalion in 1ake, flshed up, turned into charsssf -r'(p.43)'

this link between the play and the estate that Oedipa sets out to

clarify but l-s lnstead confronted by a repetltion of "what had remained

yet had somehow, before thls, stayed atvayrr(p.10)¡ and by a name¡ a word

for lt; Trystero.

For amld its bloodspilling, the manifold varietfes of torture and

death which it explores, the play also investlgates the relation of

language to truth and evll. Importantly, the decadence which infects

the Squamugllan court of evlL Duke Angelo 1s linkedr though implicitlyt

to a debased conceptlon and use of language. Angelo has a remarkably

l-iteral attitude towards words, evlnced in darkly comlc fashlon by

the nature of the ink he uses. Havlng ordered the massacre of neighbour-

ing Fagglo's Guard, he has the Knights' bodles thrown Lnto a lake; their

bones are latBr retrieved, redúced to charcoal and then transformed

lnto the ink whlch Angelo uses in all subsequent communÍcation with

Faggio. The rather literal irony of this occasions him much mirthr as

does hls pun on lnk:

Thls pltchy brew in France ls 'rencre'r hight;

In thls mlght dlre Squamugl-ia ape the Gaul¡

For "anchor" it has ris'n, from deeps untold(p. as) ,

Subsequently, the forrn of torture chosen for an uncooperative cardinal

coincides with Angelo's linguistic predeliction: they perform the Holy

Sacrament, but in a very literal manner, using the body and blood of

the cardinal. He is

. r. forced to bleed into a chalice and

consecrate his own blood, not to Godr but

to Satan. They also cut off his big toet

and he is made to hold it up like a Host

and say, "This is my body", the keen-witted

Angelo observing that it's the first time

hers told anything like the truth in

fifty years of systernatic lying (pp.4?-45),

Here, Angelo's is a peculiarly medievaL form of evi], revealed in the

undermÍnlng of Truth by destroying the symbolÍc basis of its temporal

manifestations. Traditionally, this sacrament is observed in figural

terms¡ as the outward and visible sign of inward and spirÍtual grace;

and 1t is this splritual dimension whlch Angelo attacks in the rltes of

torture and ignores in his use of words. His conception of truth Ís

Limited to a simple, literal, relationship of resemblance. But the

assassins he employs to murder the rigntf'uL heir to Faggio, Niccolò,

occupy a linguistic space which is external to the dichotomy of literal

versus metaphoric meaning. The expllcit naming of these assassins is

deferred; they are inítiall-y identlfied only by a shift in verbal at-

mosphere.

ft 1s about this point in the playr in fact,

that things really get peculj-ar, and a gentle

chiIl, an ambiguity, begins to creep in

among the words. Heretofore the naming of

names has gone on either literaIly or as

metaphor, But now ... a new mode of expression

takes over. It can only be called a kind of

ritual reluctance (pp.49-50),

Like the magic, "anon¡mous and mallgnant" which Oedipa became aware of

through the medium of the Varos painting, these agents of death are

called upon "from outside"(p.11); Angelo summons them from an unkno\t'n

realm outside the primary scene of the action. They too resist overt

articulation; their identity is indicated by "Significant Looks'r, it is

"a1l- a big in-joke"(p.50): those who know, simply knorv, but do not say.

So when they finally appear, the assassins move 'rin líthe and terrible

silence"(p.51). Confronted by them, Niccolò ís reduced to silence,

"cannot speak, only stutter, in what may be the shortest line ever

written in blank verse¡ 'T-t-t-t-t... "'[p.51). The consequence of thelr

appearance, apaft from the death of Niccolò, Ís the transforrnation

wrought upon the letter, written by Angelo, whlch Niccolò was carrying.

No longer is it a lying assurance to Faggio's government of Angelors

good intentions, but a confession of his many crimes: "A lifers base 1ie,

rewritten into truth"(p.52). Trystero bring death, in Niccolò's case,

and reveal death as the fate of the Lost.Guard - a function which, as we

shall see, is shared by those groups affiliated with the Tristero, op-

erating in contemporary California.

But it is here that OedÍpa first hears the word'rTristeroü,

uttered "on a note most desperate", amid an atmosphere of pervasive

semantic ambiguity. Perhaps it is thls ambivalence that prompts her to

search out the play's director, Randolph Driblette. Ostensibly, she is

puzzled by the coincidence with the bones, the possibility of a connec-

tion between the repetitions, yet she also tel1s Metzger that she

doesn't care about them. Trystero has left her too looking "around for

words, feeling helpIess"(p.53). Consequently, j-t is the Trystero that

she discusses with Driblette, or rather, the Trystero dlook'r: 'rThe

knowing look you get in your dreams from a certain unpleasant figure"

(p.55J. Upon discovering that these "signifÍcant Looks'r - the "ritual

reluctancetrwith whi-ch the nature of the assassins j-s expressed - t'r,ere

created by DrÍblette, Oedipa questions him, pursuing some anterior

meaning which would explicate their ambiguity. But Driblette discou-

rages this search for concealed meaning; all she gets from him is "the

same aura of ritual reluctance'r, and some advice. He argues that

significance lies not in language, rather in the subjective conscious-

ness; not in texts but in the head.

That's what I'm here for. To give the spirit

flesh. The words, who cares? They're rote

noises to hold l-ine bashes with .. . But the

reality is in this head. Mine' Irni the

projector at the planetarium, all the closed

litt1e universe visible in the circle of that

stage is coming out of my mouth r.. (p.56).

Driblette has a non-paranoid conception o,f meaning, truth and reality -because he is solipsistic - believing that the self is the only know-

abl-e element in the process of signifÍcation. A paranoidr such as

Fallopian, is aware of the relativity of his positionr fÍnding 'rbeyond

sÍmpIe coincidence" the evidence of conspiracy, yet remaining aware of

the fact of coincidence, His solipsism obscures the subjectivity of his

'treality'r at the same time as Driblette elevates it to the status of a

henmeneutic prínciple. From this aspect, the proximlty of solipsism to

narcissism becomes apparent. The solipsistic notion of the seff as the

only knowable entity is, ln Driblette's case, based upon the narcissistic

mode of projectlng his own meaning and, from the limlted perspective of

self-absorptj-on¡ taking lt for the only existent reality. He accuses

Oedipa of a Puritan obsession with "words, words'r, of which she is

probably guilty, but this is a part of her developing verbal consciousness

which will not permit her any satisfaction with a compromised version of

rtruthtr; what she seeks is Truth. So al-though Driblette warns her that

"You can put together c1ues, develop a thesis .. ¡ You could waste your

llfe that way and never touch truth'r, she cannot accept his solipslstic

mode of perception, his notion that "Wharfinger supplÍed words and a

yarn. I gave them 11fe. That's it."(p.56). Solipsism represents a form

of understanding generated by a limited - in religious or figural terrns,

corrupt - vision of the capacity of language, one which restrlcts íts

representatj-onal abilities to those of the individual mind, which becomes

the soLe locus of its meaning, supplanting the $/ord as the source of

knowledge,

Yet Oedipa 1s begfnning to,recognize the restraints imposed by

her language, her time and space, ultimately her ownr mind, upon her

capacity to discover a reality which exists beyond those bounds. Her

abil-Íty even to emulate Drlblette, to become "the dark machine in the

centre of the planetarium", and bestow life or meaning upor the

Inverarlty estate is llmlted by "her deep,ignorance of Ìaw¡ of invest-

ment, of real estate, ultimately of the dead man hÍmselfn(p.58). However,

these doubts are offset by.,the proliferation of ,'revelatÍons which now

seemed to come crowding 1n exponentially .. ! until everything she saw,

smelled, dreamed, remembered, would somehsrrr come to be woven fnto The

Tristero"(p,58), The recurrence of the tapestry image, recaLling the

painted tower wlth its imprisoned, solipsistic weavers, almost coincides

with the description of D¡.ibl-ette's eyes - "suruounded by an incredj-ble

network of lines, like a laboratory maze"(p.54) ' which so capture

Oedipa's attention, suggesting that whilst she doesnot actively "proj-

ect a wor1d"[0.591, perhaps something has adhered to "her viscera"(p.55),

a tissue of Tristero threads which structure her perceptions and prog-

ressively weave her clues or signs into a text. But as soon as this

possibility is introduced, Oedlpa encounters Stanley Koteks, another

communicant of WASTE, absent-mindedly doodling the muted posthorn

synboL. From Koteks she learns not only of the existence of an alterna-

tive postal system, but also how much further she must develop if she

is to become a competent reader of her semiotic wor1d. Until now, she

has read "WASTE" as if it were a word, but when she pronounces it thus

to Koteks¡ his "face congealed, a mask of distrust"[p'63) - she has

pronounced herself an outsider. rrrltrs W.A.S.T.E., ladyrthe told her,

"an aoron)Ân, not rwaste'"(p.63), So this single clue - or what she had

thought of as a single sign - proliferates, separating itself into five

equally enigmatic initials, signs: a paradigm of her quest.4

Once again, Oedipa finds herself alienated from a symbolic field

of discourse. The substance of this symbol, WASTE, is partially clari-

fied for her by Fa1-lopian. Or rather, her suspicion that it is the

embLem of an alternative, obJectÍvely real, medium of postal communíca-

tion is'fembellÍshed". He confirms her nascent conception of an "under-

groundi peopled by the dj.ssatisfied, alienated, dispossessed: "an

underground of the unbalanced, perhaps"(p.,63). To this central i-dea or

pattern all of her clues seem to start up; her "revelations" take on'

the appearance of figural signs pointing to something "to do with the

mail and how it is delivered"(p.64). A significant connection, a

contlnuity, between this pattern and the Tristero is, therefore, the

element whl,ch she next pursues, prompted by a return to Fangoso Lagoons.

There she finds an historJ-ca1 marker, representing the site of the

massacre of V/ell-s, Fargo men by "a band ol'masked marauders in myster-

ious black uniforms"(p.64), The simiLarity between this physíca1

description and the costumes worn by Driblette's Trystero assassins

becomes more important when she puzzLes over the meaning of a cross,

apparently inscribed in the dust by one of the victims: "A cross? Or

the initial T? The same stuttered by Niccolò in The tourÍerrs Tragedy"

(p.6a). She pursues the meaning of this inscribed sign by searcþing out

a text of the play; but turning to "the single mention of the word

Trystero"(p.65), discovers the existence of a variant line. From this

she takes encouragement, thinking that "Another reading of that line

might help light further the dark face of the word"[p.65), \{hen she

finally traces a copy of the original hardcover edition, however, she

is confronted with a completely different linen mentÍoning no Trysterot

and an editorial note indicating that the play exists in Folio and

Quarto editíons, as well as a "Vlhitechepel!' editi-on which "besides being

a fragment, abounds in suoh corrupt and probably spurious lines ¡ e ¡ is

hardly to be trusted"Ip.?5). The performance which Oedipa has witnessed

though, niust draw upon another, unacknowledgedr edition. Again, her

clues proliferate, but now from a ItTextrr into texts.

This tendency towards proliferation, which seems to be somehow

inherent in her c1ues, stands contrery to the conventional progress of

a figural hermeneutic, which leads from the process of analysis to a

syncretic syntheslsj-ng or unification of signs into a transcendental

One. But a cause for this propensity to mu1-tiplicity Ín the narrative

is revealed through the unlikely figure of Mr Thoth, a character who is

dlsmissed almost at the same time as he is introduced to the action.

And yet this brief appearance provides an important indication of the

nature of the pretextual antecedents to The Crvinq of Lot 49. I men-

tioned earlier the function of the a)-Iegoric narrative as an interp-

retation of a prior, sacred text and also the necessity that modern

allegories address themselves to the problem posed by the historical

devaluation of pretextual authority. Pynchon's narratives adapt them-

selves to this sltuation of semantic scepticism by drawing upon sacred

texts whlch are located outside the mainstream Ghristian,tradition:

although the events óf RevelatÍon contribute importantly to their

spiritual contexts, In V we saw the Koran adding its authority to the

apocalyptic atmosphere of Stencll's quest; in The Crying of Lot 49 it

is the Egyptian religious canon whÍch reinforces the narrative's apoc-

alyptic and Pentecostal aLlusions" For whilst the context created

through biblical reference provides an indication of the potentially

sacred nature of Oedipa's olues - her "hieroglyphics" - it is the

Egyptian god Thoth and the metaphysic whlch he represents that deter-

mine the capacJ-ty of the narrative's language, and of Oedipa.s quest,

to articul-ate a supranatural reality. As I have already noted, the pre-

text serves the dual function of representing a culturally accepted

visual-ization of the implled sacred order and of determining the status

of allegoric language, its capacity to slgnify such an,order.

fn contrast to the ChrÍstlan God, identified with Truth, Thoth

is a messenger-god, a divine intermediary, who does not create but

rather executes through language - signifies - the creativity of another

godr l'{orus. so Thoth is not a source of Meaning, does not contein it

wÍthin himself, but is a purveyor of it. However, he is a deceptive

agent of Truth¡ knowledge and linguistíc reality; an agent of duplicity

and multipllcity rather than of unity. Att¡ibuted to hlm is the lntro-

duction of plural-lty lnto spoken¡ and perhaps arso wrltten, language.,t.Jaroslav GernÍ in a short article, "Thoth as Greator of Languages",

cites a papyrus whlch invokes Thoth in the terms: "Hail to thee, Moon-

Thoth, who made different the tongue of one country to another,,.S so in

the Egyptian traditlon, Thoth forrns a counterpart to the erristian

concept of Babel: the faIl of Language from an exclusively spoken. state

of linguistic grace into a wrj-tten mode, with its consequent obscuring

of a transcendent source of meaning anterior to the signs which convey

it. And it is against this spiritual/semantic background that Oedipa

pursues her quest. She is confronted with the cognitive obstacles posed

by foreign languages - not in the sense of languages differentiated on

racial grounds - but modes of discourse whlch differ from one mind to

the next, This, inevLtably, poses the problem of continuity; a continuity

among languages whlch may provÍde access to a Language or metalanguage

transcending temporal categories of differencei and also a continuity

among figurae, between repetltlons or "hierophanies'r, which woul.d reveaÏ

the force informing each. But it i-s Thoth, whose function it is to "work

at the subverslve dlslocatl-on of identlty"6, who points to non-identity

as a constitutive quanity of the invlsible reality which she pursues -

perhaps a reason why she percelves only the promise of an ultimate

hierophany. Just as the typotogical characters Abraham or the Samaritan

in Piers Plowman'or Bèatri-ce ln " Rappaccinlrs Daughtert' indicater albeit

partially, the nature of en informÍng spiritual order of realíty so

Mr Thoth provides an important clue to the nature of the sacred impulse

which determines the narrative's figural signsr particularly their

accessibll-ity to knowfedge - with the cruclaÌ exception that herer as

in y, ft is the demonic aspect of the sacred whlch is encountered.

Like the Lady V. who, as we have seen, Ís potential-ly a satanic

Paraclete, who works at the erosion of distinct linguistlc categories,

Mr Thoth presents an explicit co-mlngllng.of discourses. It is in her

conversatlon with him that 0edipa confronts the intersection of Thoth¡s

dislocative proJect with language.? Sh" seeks from him gome clear

Índication to the ldentlty of the "masked marauders" - whom she suspects

were Tristero assassins - that systematlcally and violently opposed the

Pony Express, for whom Mr Thothrs grandfather rode, and Wel1s, Fargo.

But the old man's memory is adulterated by dream landscapes and the

idlom of Porky Pig cartoons. All he remembers of the desperadoes is their

simllarity to a cartoon anarchist¡ "The anarchist ... dressed all in

b1ack"(p.66), but even this is confused by memories of the stories that

his grandfather would tell, so that they become "The IndÍans who weren't

fndians'i(p.6?); ldentity meets non-identÍty. Their name he tries to

recall in terrns of foreign languages, groping among them for something

whlch would trigger his memory: "'A Spanish namer'Mr Thoth saidt

frownlng, 'A Mexican name. oh, I can't remembtr"'(p.6?). Finally he has

recourse to the signet ring, cut from the finger of one kiIled; and

engraved upon it '!was once again the WASTE symbol"(p,6?),

Perhaps significantl-y, Oedipa's response to this revelation is

cast in terms of a traditional image signifying salvation: IÍght shinÍng

through glass; an image which recurs, with this meaning, in the opening

seq uence of Gravltyts Rainbow.

She looked around, spooked at the sunlight

pouring in all the windows, as if she had been

trapped at the centre of some intricate

crystal , and said rrMy God'r.

'rAnd f feel him, certaín days, days of a

certaln temperaturer " said Mr Thothr "and

barometric pressurer Did you know that? I feel

him close to me,'l

frYour grandfather?"

"No, my God. " (p.6?),

Mr Thoth repeats the analogy, made in 'rEntropy", between the soul

"(spiritusr 4Ðr pneuma)" as air and the atmosphere, "warpings" in

which are capabl-e of recapitulation "ln those who breathe it"(p.2?B).

The symbol applied to Oedlpa's conception, however, represents the

intrusion of an external force into a closed system¡ paradigmatic of

the Tristero's intrusion into her n,orId. But as a sign of salvation, it

is an ambiguous symbol, complicated by her proximity to Thoth.

The narrative's only previous reference to salvation is Oedipa's

"unvoiced idea" of the Pacific ocean "as redemption for Southern

Calj-fornia", an entity which "stayed invÍo1ate and integrated or assumd

the ugllness at any edge into some more generel truth"(p.3?). She

represents the sea, to herself, as among other things "the hole left by

the moonrs tearing-free"(p.3?). Thus, it Ís the presence which inclic-

ates an absence, containing or straddling the two¡ ahd so reifies the

position in whj-ch she is Iocated by her Tristero-quest, poised between

presence - her clues - and an ebsence - the trtranscendental signifier"

of them. NÒw Thoth, besides being the god of writing or cryptography,

is also the god of the moon: identified either directl-y with it or aso

its protector." Any sacred radiance which he may possess is reflected

ì.ight, orlginating in Arnmon-Ra: "the god-king, the sun-god',.9 Tn this,

as in his signifying function, Thoth is a secondary god - occupyi-ng a

space on the interface between presence and absence: light and its:

sourcer language and its meaningi and so he forr¡s a sacred analogue to

OedÍpa. But whereas Oedipa is largeì-y a passive receiver of signs,

cl-ues to a transcendent reality, Thoth actively disrupts access to the

original sacred One, the source of meaning, the light which would

Ílluminate'rthe dark face of the wordrf, thr center which oedipa must

know Íf she is to verify the obJective reality of the Tristero.

For Thoth wouLd himsel-f become the god of the creatÍve word; he

would displace and subvert - through vioLence if necessary - his father,

the rWordt.

It is not in any reality foreign to the "p1ay

of words" that Thoth also frequently

part;i-cipates in plots, perfidious intrigues,

conspiracies to usurp the throne. He helps

the sons do away with the father, the

brothers to do away with the brother that

has becom" king.10

It is in terms of such a conspiracy that Oedipa finally discovers a

relationship between the "WASTE symbol" and the Tristero. From Genghis

Gohen, the philatelist who is to inventory and appraise Inverarity!s

stamp collection, she learns of Thurn and Taxis, the private mail

couriers who were I'from about 1300 ... the European mail- service"(p"?0 j:

their emblem or "syrnbol", the posthorn. And among Inveraríty's stamps

are discovered forgeries, in vrhich a mute is inscribed and inserted

into the beIl, forming the WASTE symbol.Oedipa is not surprised by this

though,

She nodded. The black costumes, the

silence, the secrecy. Whoever they were

their aim was to mute the Thurn and Taxis

post horn (p.?0J,

flhat does disturb her, however, j-s the nature of other alterations

wrought on the ostensible Thurn and Taxis. stamps; 'tlaboriously worked

into the design, J.ike a taunt"(p.?I). The plcture of a Pony Express

rider, for instance, galloping towards "a single, painstakingly

engraved, black fedther"(p.?1) - denoting, perhaps, the presence of an

fifndian who isnrt an Indian¡ - and the transposition¡ "U.S. Potsage".

After she has described her extraordinary "Muchoesquie envelope", the

possibility occurs to them that this systematic defacing or forgery may

be as old as Thurn and Taxis, originating in I29Ot "An 800-year

tradition of postal fraud"(p"?1). It is not untÍ1 much later in the

narrative that Oedipa learns the identity of its "founding figure":

Hernando Joaquln de Trlstero y GaLavera, dispossessed of Thurn and

Taxis and so dedicated to 'fobstruction, terror and depredatlon along

the Thurn and Taxis mail routes"(p.120). Her initial reaction to the

possibillty of a real, historic, Tristero system is to suggest informing

the goatrment. fn doing so, she "loses'Cohen v'rho abruptly shifts the

conversation to the wine they ere drinking.

This dandelion wine, made by Cohen, is the result of a process of

transurbstantlation simllar to that which Oedipa has already encounteredt

while pursuing the coincidental- repetftion of the bones-made-charcoaln

Bones, other than those of fallen'Americanr 6I¡s, used in Inverarityrs

filter program, were obtained from the cemetary which made way for "the

path of the East San Narciso Freeway"(p.41); bones upon which these

dandelions \{ere nurtured. This unexpected repetÍtion, Oedipa thinks of

as a ttsignaltt,

She could, at this stage of thíngs, necogn:tze

signals like that, as the epileptic is said

to - an odor, col-or, pure piercing grace note

announcing hÍs seizure. Aftervard it fs only

thls signal, real1y dross, this secul-ar

announcement, and never what,is reveaLed

during the attack, that he remembers. Oedlpa

wondered whether, at the end of thls o r. she

too; mtght not be left wlth only compiled

memories of clues, announcements, íntimatlons,

but never the central truth 1tseIf, which- must

somehow each time be tco bright for her memory

to hold | ... she would never know how many

times such a seizure may already have

vislted, or how to grasp it should it

visít again (p.69).

Later, she wil-l- think of these "signaIs" as potential "compensation r.¡

for her having lost the direct, epileptic Word"(p.B?).

In these terms, their nature is akin to that of the Derridean

I'supplement'r: "that which both signifles the lack of a'presencer, or

state of plenitude for ever beyond recall, and compensates for that

lack by setting in motion j-ts own economy of differencert.ll So what

"might be possible to get lost in"(p.69) is the plenitude of figural

signs, secular snnouncements, which seem to promise a revelation of

truthr if only partially, but signify instead the absence of Meaning.

Her clues are, in the characteristic manner of figurae, available to

secular explanation, her repetitions can be merely discrete coincidences

but allegoric figurae open also to religious interpretation - repeti-

tÍons become aspects or temporal manifestations of an eternal pattern

whích, like the film Gashiered , is or can be manifest i-n any discontin-

uous sequencer but from the perspective of the atemporal exists all-at-

once. A significant semlotic continuity is apparent only through the

medium of a secondary díscourse, a commentary. And the figural- si-gns,

which can be read literally to refer to a secular object of reference,

from a herrneneutic perspective reveal - metaphoricatly - an implicit

splritual reference, as their signifying function is discovered in

terrns of a transcendental origin. But without such a hermeneutic,

Oedipa could well- become lost in a linguistic maze, in the infinite

play of secular, historical and semantic signification. As we have seen,

the conventional allegoric hero/ine discovers an interpretative mode

which is largely dictated by the pretext and the signifying capacity

which its language represents. Oedipa's dilernma is compounded by the

nature of this narrative's pretext which appears to endorse the

enÍgmatic, indeterrninate qualíty of her temporal signs. For Thoth is

the god of "secret accounts; of hidden texts: an archetype of Hermes;

the god of cryptography no less than of every other -graphy."l2 In thls,

he is aligned with the Tristero, Bn organization which Íntentionally

eludes articulatlon and any speciflclty of description.

Yêt desplte this, the narrative continues in the attempt to

discover an J-nterpretative system which would bestow coherence and a

meaningful order upon its figural signs, to make them cohere rather

than simply accumulate. And so Oedipa continues to pursue a clear set

of distinctions between the elements of analogies or repetitions and,

particularly, between the literal and metaphoric i"eferences of the word.

She is not, of course, the only character embarked upon such a search

for a source of meaning and valuel already she has met Fallopian who

percéives as truth a'rcreeping horror" manifest in the dialectic of

hÍstory, and has heard Dribletters panegyric to himself as the centÊr'of

linguistic meaning. But the subjectivlty of their interpretative

stances means that her quest must go on. StiII, it is not until- her

encounter with John Nefastls, eccentrlc inventor, that she realizes the

fundamental arbitrariness whlch underlies their accommodations with

semantic relativity.

For Nefastls creates a significant relationship between twor' i'distinct realms - thermodynamlcs and commqnicatlon - through the

ambiguous linguistic device of metaphor; "a thrust at truth and a 1ie,

depending on where you weref'(p.95). Gonventlonally, the rtruth" of a

figural metaphor Ís validated by lts sacred perceptual context - an

awareness of its place In a dlvine providentlal scheme. Without thisiluLtimate't authenticati-on lts import remains ambiguous; a "thrust at

truth'r or a merely apparent conceptuaÌ siml-lar1-ty, Oedipa has been

,,sensitized,,to the idea of an invisible reality which is manifest in

the temporal by her experience of Cohen's "sacramental'wj-ne, the idea

that the dandelions' "home cemetary did in some way stil1 exist ' .. As

if the dead really do persist, even in a bottle of wine'"(p'?Z)' So

when Nefastis presents her wlth a reification of this concept she feels

,,ILke some kÍnd of heretic"[p.7?) in objecting to it. He takes as his

,,invisible reality" entropy¡ which is measured using similar equations

in both thermodynamic and communication theory. HÞ explains: "The two

fields were entirely unconnected, except at one point: Maxwellrs Demon"

(p.??), And it is such a Demon that he assumes to exist within his

,,Nefastis Machine,t. As I pointed out in the second chapter, the flaw in

lúaxwellts theory, his notion of the Demon as an agent which could

activel-y counter the íncrease in entropy, is the fact that the sorting

done by the Demon constitutes work. oedipa realizes this when she asks

Stanley Koteks

:.Sorting isn't work? r.¡ TelI them down at

the post offíce¡ Yourll find yourself in a

mailbag headed for Fairbanks, Alaska, without

even a FRAGILE sticker going for you (p'62)"

Nefastis corrects this practical- flaw in the theory by introducing the

,rsensitive,r, the one who must receive the Demonts "staggering set of

energies¡ and feed back sornethlng like the same quantity of inforrnation"

(p.??), thus instllling a different forrn of energy into the otherwise

closed system of the Machine; all at some "deep psychic l-evelr'. The

resul-t of this process, the visible sign which signifies the Demonrs

existencer and the reallty of the lnvisible phenomenon entropyt on the

,,secu1ar Jevel" is "one piston, hopefulIy moving"(p'??)' Gonsequentlyt

for Nefastis, the Demon authenticates the trutlr of the metaphor' entropy'

... connects the world of therrnodynamics

to the world of inforrnati.on flow. The

Machine uses both. The Demon makes the

metaphor not only graceful but objectively

true {p,??),

But whilst Nefastis requires a secular sign as evidence of entropy¿s

reality, he slmply assumes the reallty of the Demon. It j-s this un-

questioned assumption that Oedipa queri-es, suggesting that "the Demon

exists only because r¡c of the metaphor"(p.?8). Hls reply is to smile,

'limpenetrable, calm, a believer"(p.78).

So Oedipa turns to the photo of C1erk Maxwell, emblazoned on the

fúrachine, as a possible anterÍor source of the Demon's significance. But

he has nothing to shorv her, the "familiar Society for the Propagation

of Christian Knowledge photo"(p.62) reveals nothing beyond her own

desire to perceÍve a sign, to know the reality of an intangible force

and her own capacity, as a "sensitive'r, to see-.it. In the absence of

visible evidence, 0edipa can only conclude that the Demon is one of "the

man's hallucinations"(p.?9J. The "Nefastis Machine" provides access,

not to an external truth, but to a formulated system of belief, tlre

comfort and security of whÍch Oedipa envies. However¡ she can no morp

share Nefastis' private worLd of discourse, his possibLe madness, than

she could accept tbi.bletters solipsistic mode of cognition. Stj-Il she

seeks some avenue to an objective realm of meaning, where signifÍ.cance

ls not constrained by the limitations of the individual psyche and its

meaning-making facility. Nefastis takes a metaphor and literalizes it,

assuming that this then represents a Truth¡ a oñe-di,mensional relation-

shlp of resemblance, in much the same way as Angelo, in The Courierrs

Tragedy, mistrusts the figuraf and spiritual dj-mension of the sacra-

ments, seeing instead a perverse literalizing of the Eucharist as

something "like the truth". This confusion of the two referential- func-

tions of the word, its reLation to the intangible concepts it signifies'

is the major obstacle which Oedipa faces. Metaphor is the medium in

which she must work, to find an adequate relatj-onship between secular

signs and an origì-n of meaning, and hencd a coherent hermeneutic system

which binds the temporal to the eternal.

Through the example of Nefastis she begins to reafize this; she

recognizes in him, more so than any of the characters previously en-

countered, a paradigm of her own quest; "He had made his mere coincidence

respectable with the help of Maxwell's Demon", yet

... here was Oedipa, faced with a metaphor of

God knew how many parts; more than twot

anyway. VJith coincidences blossoming these

days wherever she looked¡ she had nothing but

a sound, a word, Trystero, to hold them togetherIp.80 ) .

Nefastls takes a word, entropyr âñd makes of it a metaphorr but at the

cost of l-iteralizing it, restricting its meaning to that of a labe1t

naming a coÍncldence. Oedipars metaphor, however, is problematic

precisely because of its unrestricted signification¡ Trystero is the

word, the''{vehicle" which links many ntenorsi, but has yet to reveal

its rrTenorr. The suggestion that what she is, in fact, faced with is

simply "a metaphor of God"13 ignores the satanic nature of these local-

ized meanlngs - tenors - of "Tristero'r which are relatively unequivocal.

Driblette counts among the things "lïhsrfinger di,dn't lie about" the

',other,r, ,,The Adversary"(p.56J; in researching his hj-story of private

mail delivery Fallopian ls familiar with the Pony Express and Wel1st

Fargo, but not with what he terms "their dark adversaries"(p,6?); in

the annotated text of The Gourier's Tragedy Oedipa discovers an alter-

native to her "Trystero line"; 'fThis tryst or odious awry, O Niccolò"

(p.?A) r ahd a note suggesting that it contains the pun: 'rThis trystero

dÍes @"(p.?5) - Trystero as the Day of Judgement, of wrath, or as a

deus ;!ry, a wrathful god, But it is in her descent into the San

Franciscan night, the "plunge toward dawn indeflnite black hours long

(which) wouLd indeed be necessary before The Trj-stero could be revealed"

(p,36), that she experLences the fuII range of the TrÍstero's aspects,

its field of meaning or relevance in temporaL terms.

Here, she discovers what it is adversary (or Adversary) to; not

simpl-y the Thurn and Taxis postal monopoly, but monopolies in'general:

the Establishment¡ the legitimate society. Here, where the city

reveals itself in a new form, stripped of its varnish, of "customary

words and images"(p.86)r she ceases to be atttourist" and perceives

what real1y lies on its skin, that which "customary words" cannot name

or articuLate and so obscure Ínstead: I'the separate, silent, urrsuspected

wor1d"(0.S2)o Yet she begins her descent as a tourist, with the name

Arnold Snarb, among the tourists herded Ínto a bar 'rThe Greek Way".

Already she 1s aware of WASTE as "a channel of cornmunÍcation for those

of unorthodox sexual persuasfon"(p.80)i so it is not surprlstng that

here she should soon discover another I'Trystero post horn. Mute and

everything"(p.81); now as the emblem of Inamorati Anonymous, a society

of isoLates dedicated to the batile against love, 'rthe worst addiction

of aL1"(p.82). So it is only after oedipa has admltted her own isolation

that the anonymous inamorato recounts the history of rrFounder, fA'r: a

story which parallels her own..

Like OedÍpa, isoLated in her*towerd!, this executive 'rhad been

from age ? rigldly lristructed in an eschatology that pointed nolhere

but to a presidency and death"(p,83). Abruptly "the faceless pointsmen"

shunt him on to "another pattern of track"[p.?ô), and off the rails.

Deprived of the possibility.of a presidency - automated out of his job

- he is left with no alternative but death; whereas Oedipa, evicted

from her "tower", is left facing'lthe void". However, he is saved from

"taking his Brody" by his own indecision initially, then by his recog-

nition of nAbsurdity'', and finaLly by a bundle of letters, from an

underground of failed suicides, delivered by WASTE. Doused with gasoline

in preparation for his fiery death, he fÍnds that the ink has dissolved

from the stamps to reveal- the WASTE symbol-. trrA signrr he whispered,

'is what it is"'(p.85), WAETE¡ and his deterrninatlon to found Inamorati

Anonymous, provide an alternative source of value, external to the

limited eschatology to whÍch he has been educated. Exiled from the main-

stream culture by innovations in communication technology - rather ihan

love - the muted posthorn appears to hím as a mystical vision, a sign

from the world of the disinherited; consequently it is to non-communÍc-

ation that he dedlcates his l-ife and through the disruption of personal

communication endows it with meaning.

Oedipa; with her sustained reluctance to make such a leap of

faÍth, her scepticism towards its effícacy - in ultímate terms - remains

pofsed between signs and their potential meaning. But es her descent

continues, the perimeter between the two, ,between reality and fantasy,

becomes blurred ! 'rshe would have trouble sorting the night into real

and dreamed"(p.86). Yet this is e phenomenon which has dogged her percep-

tion from the beginning. Approaching San Narcj-so, driving through a

monotonous, unchanging landscape, her movement becomes "an illusion of

speedrr ;

I4'hat the road reaIly was, she fancied, was

this hypodermj-c needle, Ínserted somewhere

ahead into the vein of a freeway, a vein

nourlshing the mainfiner L. 4., keeping it

happy, coherent, protected from painr or

whatever passes, with a cj-ty, for pain (p.14).

Such a tendency to transform reality into image, the particular into

the abstract, underlíes her entire quest - and the narrativers reporting

of it - which v¡ould be a means of fulfitllng it, if she could establish

a coherent set of signifying relationships between these realms of

being. The real and the particular as clues crystallize into an apparent

logÍc, but the meaning of this temporal system in terrns of a qhigher'

source, as something other than a complex tautology, can be determined

only through reference to a valid, and velorized, interpretation of the

sacred and its modes of temporal manifestation: a pretext. In its

absence, Oedipa is caught amid the various significations of the word

and in the ambigulty of reality versus fantasy. That this confusion of

categories attaches also to herself is evincdd by such lapses in her

perception. Yet it is also a quality which appears to reside 1n the

nature of her world: in the city drugged by a fantasy - an American

Dræm - which obscures the painful traces of reality; in a culture so

predicated upon the denial of death that it necessarily íncludes its

opposite, in "Forest Lawn and the Fvnerícan cult of the dead"(p.42) as

Manny dl Presso teIls her or, as she discovers for herself, in the

instinctual 'rdeath-wish that can be consummated by some minimum gesture"

(p,8?). And 1t is the Tristero which reveal-s these hidden springs, by

embodying an 0pposite Principle, by exaggerating that which the Estab-

lishment inevitably lapses in to,

Travelling in a [busful of Negroes going on to graveyard shifts"

(p.89) Oedipa finds the post horn t'with the legend DEATH": "DON'T EVER.

ANTAGONIZE THE HORN"(p,90); at the airport she finds a gambler avereging

a .625 percent loss which he will never overcome; she reads 'rån

advertisement by AGDG, standing for the Alameda County Death Gu1t" who,

every month, choose a victim from the Establishment, "the socially

integrated and well-adjusted"(p.90), use him sexually and then sacri-

fice him; she overhears a boy departing for Fl-orida where he v',i11

surreptitiously open communications with the dolphins and report to his

mother via WASTE, to maintain secfecy from the government; and she

finds a Negro woman who Ís dedicated to the 'rrituals of miscarriage"

rather than of birth, sdcing not continuity but "interregnum"Ip.9I).

The substance of these encounters is reified in the figure of a night-

watchman "who had trained his virtuoso stomach'r to accept the material

counterparts of "a11 the promise, productivity, betrayal, ulcers,

before it was too late ... in a hopeless attempt to assimilate it all "

(p.91),Oedipa, the Young Republican, begins thus to perceive the futl

nature of her Republi-c, the vuorld which coexists wíth that of Muzak,

Tupperware parties and ishrinksil but previously has been hidden, releg-

ated to "another pattern of track"(p.?6). ft is a sub-universe, created

by "a calcuLated withdrawal, from the life of the Republic"(p.92) and

its emblem, "decorating each allenation", is the muted posthorn. Denied

the realj-ty of an American Dream these, the disínherited, realize

instead that which the dream was designed to obscure; and in so doing,

reveal or define through oppositÍon the majority culture,

Hère, the narrativers sustained references to Narcissus clarify,

as a diagnosis not of Oedlpars interpretative method but of the condi-

tion of the world she tries to interpret.. So San Narciso, the base for

fnverarÍtyrs business holdings, the point from which they have expanded,

becomes synptomatic of a culture narcissistically 1n love with its own

appearances, lts "customary words and imagesrr, high on its self-perpet-

uating Dream.14 Eoitomizing this peculiar form of addiction,is Inverarity

himself in "his need to possess, to alter the land, to bring new sky

l-ines, personal antagonisms, growth rates into belng. ,Keep it al1

bouncingilr; but it is a need predícated on the knov,rledge that "the

bouncing would stop"(p.Iea). This nexus between narcissism and death is

prefigured in The Courierrs Tragedy , where the good Duke of Faggio dies

after kÍssing the poisoned feet of an image of SaÍnt Narcissus, ushering

a landscape of evil ,.. fashioned for ... 17th-

century' audiences, so preapocalyptic, death-

wishful, sensually fatigued, unprepared, a

l-ittle poignantly, for that abyss of cj-vil war

that had been waiting, cold and deep, only a

few years ahead of them [p.44).

Oedipa's America may not be heading toward another Civil Vüar, but stil1

it is a divided culture, preapocalyptic and death-v'rishful, its divisions

based not so much on politics as on the private subjectivíty of each

citizen. Oedipa has encountered the Babel-like qual-ity of the nationrs

language, its proliferation into esoteric universes of dÍscourse, but

this linguistic phenomenon is repeated or echoed in social, moral and

ethical terms as we1I. So Mucho, working as a used-car salesftãrì¡ is con-

fronted with a daily parade of "people poorer than him fbringing in)

motorized, metal- extensions of thernselves, of their families and what

their whole lives must be like"(p. ). Each car is a narcissistic extension

or projection of its owner which, 1Íke his speech, embodÍes a discrete

system of value. But amid this apparent multiplicity Iíes hornogeneity;

the car is exchanged for another, "Just as futureless"(p.5)¡ Ísolated

system.

In fact, wherever Oedipa looks she encounters cl-osed systems, each

affiliated with the Tristero, which begins to take on the appearance of

a labelr a name for this phenomenon of increasing isolation: entropy.

Gertainly it coincides with an entropic increase j-n probabilÍty; as her

quest prgceeds a limited number of symbols - I/I/ASTEn the muted posthorn

and Tristero itself - recur with accelerating frequency. And the seman-

tic ambiguity with which it ls characteristj-cally associated marks an

entropic dissolution of l-inguistic categories. The flgural system of

relationships between the sign, its object of reference and a potentlal

ttranscendental signifierr' - which presuppose a metaphoric structure of

perception - become obscure as entropy dfssolves the distinctions bet-

ween l-iteral and metaphoric or spiritual significance¡ Only a "ritual

reluctance" is left as the residue of a once efficacious mode of express-

ion. This failure or lnabllity of language to dífferentiate paradoxically

reinforces - if it did not actually create - the tendency towards isol-

ated systems visible in all areas of her culture, As a consequencer the

metaphor becomes a literal expression of a private system of belieft

given order and meanins by the individual conscÍousness, vuhich in turn

exaggerates the narcissism inherent in the culture. Given the possibility

that Oedipa is attempting to read from a culture /text in entropic decay,

her pursuit of an adequate linguistic, hermeneutic set of distinctions

becomes crucÍal, as does the question of the Tristerors ontological

status.

For lf lt is an avenue to a "direct, epileptÍc lrÏord"t the sacred,

it would represent the intrusion of that new and different form of

energy requÍred to counter the progress of entropy. Here, Oedipars image

of salvation as light shining through 91as.s becomes important as does

the concept, articulated by Jesrls Arrabal, of a mlracle as "intrusions

lnto thls worLd from another, the kiss of cosmic pool ba1Is"(p.92). The

Írnplied relatj-on between the Tristero and Ttroth suggests that if the

TrÍstero is some form of transcendental force intrudlng into the closed

world of contemporary America, then it is only analogous to the sun

shining through glass and in actuality is a weak, reflected light whi.cln

cannot be traced to a numinous centre or origin: the glass barrier can

never be pierced. t,lore likely is the possibility that the Tristero and

its posthorns emanate from a dj-stinct secular v¡or1d, a secular "miracle',

origínating in the "separate, silent, unsuspected world". Yet the

Tristero embodÍes the symptoms of entropy in its temporal manifestations,

and as a potentially sacred force would be demonic rather than, divine;

working from within the closedr pt"eapocalyptj-c, cultural system, like

the Lady V., to embody and direct the process of decay. It does reveal

the 'rreal-ity principle" against which Arnerica anaesthetizes itself, the

death-as-entropy underrying its appearances which it denies and so

affi-rrns. In the manner of the Ghristian Satan¡ Ernd V., the TristerEr6

message is the certainty of death, a message which oedipa gradually,

learns to read in the medium of her culturen but percej-ves most fulIy in

her encounter u¡ith an old and derè.lÍct sailor.

Here, the quest culminates in her central linguistic revelation,j-n a moment of caritas, of synpathy which transverses the constralnts

of self and time that were, through her discovery of an atomized culture,

"immobj-lizing her"(p.92)" Having met with so many discrete, idiosyncratic

worlds of discourse and perception, Oedipa wonders 'rwhat concentrj-c

planets" thi-s sailor might have uncovered, what coded experiences his

mattress might contain "Iike the memory bank to a computer of the lost"(p.93), before it too is lost. With these speculations,

She remembered John Nefastisr. talking about his

lvlachine, and massive destructi-ons of information.

So when thls mattress flared up eround the sailor,

in his Viking's funeral: the stored, coded years

of uselessness, early death, self-harrowing, the

sure decay of hope, the set of all men who had

sì-ept on it .,r would truly cease to be, forever,

when the mattress burned. She stared at it

in wonder. It was as if she had just discovered

the irreversibLe process (p.95).

Thls is Oedipars "mJ-rac1e", in the sense that "each death, up until the

moment of our own, is miraculous"(p.5), Like George, in gife_!.g!apgy,,

she realizes the "entropy to time", the facts of loss and deathn to

which the Tristero has been pointing all along. And so she discovers also

the mystery of life, its interdependence with death, encapsul-ated in. the

image of I'dt", the time differentialrrwhere death drryelled Ín the ceII

though the ceII be looked in on at its most quick"[p.96). It is also a

recognition of the ephemerality of revelation, of any access to truth; a

lesson which all allegoric hero/ines learn - that though they may dis-

cover a mode in which Truth becomes knowable and accessible and real as

a means to salvation, it is an awareness difficult to sustain and imposs-

ible to share. Although Oedipa believes that the sailor "had seen worlds

no other man had seen if only because there was that high magic to lol

puns"[p.96) - because the pun can draw together realms of being into a

quasi-figural pattern - stilL 'rnothing she kneru of would preserve them

or him"(p,96), The moment of realization, the identification, of a

relationship or continulty, even of Truth, recedes into the past and

loses the significance of its immediacy, From there, so many ',fatigued

brain ce1ls (wou1d intrude) between hersel-f and truth"Ip.68).

Novr, Oedipa is able to articulate the attitude toward metaphor

which has been evinced throughout the narrative:

The saint whose water can light lamps, the

clairvoyant whose lapse in recaIl is the breath

of God, the true paranoid for whom al-L i-s

organized in spheres joyful or threatening about

the central pulse of himself, the dreamer

whose puns probe ancient fetid shafts and

tunnels of truth all act in the same special

relevance to the word, or whatever the word

is there, buffering to protect us from. The

act of metaphor was then a thrust at truth

and a Iie, depending on where you were:

inside, safe, or outsÍde, lost. Oedipa did

not know where she was. (p.95J.

Metaphor can create a quasi-figural perceptual or linguistic'system

through which truth becomes accessible, but it is a highly provisional

structure which does not bring transcendental Truth ítseIf present to

knowledge; rather, it unftes temporal sÍgns or figurae into a signif-

icant - though subjectlve and temporary - continuity. The passage quoted

above makes this distinction between the word and what it would "protect

us from'r - the anterior logos whlch caLls the word into being yet cannot

itsel-f be spoken or written with any adequacy of representation - a

distinction which could be cast in terms of the opposition between Thoth

and A,mmon-Ra; the opposition between that which is duplicitously temp-

oral and its atemporal origin. Beybnd such a perceived continuity or

"special relevance to the word'r lies a region of semantic uncertalnty

which can be determined only by reference to some anterior, valorized

sacred text, So although Oedipa's clues qppear to conform to an nominous

logici, in the absence of a hermeneutic context, a reliabl-e interpreta-

tion of them, thein validlty and lmport remaln ultÍmetely ambiguous.

Oedipars psychoanalyst, Dr Hitarius¡ interprets this sort of

ambiguity into partlcularl-y threatenlng paranoid rrspheresr'. Guilt for

his Nazl past he attempts to asauage by cultivating belief in the

literal truth of Freudrs writings, rreven the idiocies and contradictions"

(p.100). It is not these contradictions, however, which lead inevitably

to the failure of his attempt, but the confusion of literal and meta-

phoric meaning inherent in his hermeneutic approach.

Freudrs vision of the world had no Buchenwal-ds

in lt. Buchenwald, according to Freud, once

the light was Iet Ín, would become a soccer

field, fat children would learn flower-

arranging and solfeggio in the strangling rooms.

... I tried to believe it at1 (p,102).

HilarÍus, appears to succeed, in part, at "the forcible acquisition of

faith"[p.102); at least he succeeds in so far as he can create a meta-

phoric system which becomes meaningful in terms of 'tthe central pulse

of himself"(p.95). His problem is that the subjective reality of his

nFreud'r seems to him to be inadequate as penance. Consequently, the

residue of his unpurged guilt creaÈesrwhat are in his terms, objectively

real- Israeli gunmen, pursuing him at every turni "They walk through

waLls. They replicate: you flee them, turn a corner, and there they aret

coming for you agaln"(Þ.100). These phantom Jews approximate a figural

mode of existence, transcending the constraints of temporal time and

space. Like the saint, they can overcome natural laws - walking through

walls - and like the clairvoyant's insight, "whose lapse in recaLL is

the breath of God", they are atemporal and omnitemporal, materj.alizing

ln all moments and seemingly axlsting outside time. But the figural mode

of perception which Oedipa seeks is perverted by l'lllarius; he actively

and neurotícaIly projects these Israell figurae,which are born of a

fundamental semantlc confusÍon. His inablIlty to reconclle the literal

and metaphoric meanings of the word, which would otherwise reveaL a

flgural One - perhaps the archetypal- avenging Jew - leads instead to

psychosis, Stlll- he advocates his compromlsedr subjectivet

advising 0edipa to cleave to her esoteric Trl-stero system:

hermeneutic,

HoLd it tlghtly by its litt1e tentaclest

donrt Iet the Freudians coax it away or

the pharmacists polson it out of you.

lThatever it 1s, hold lt dearr for when you

l-ose lt you go over by that much to the

others [p.103).

Hilarfus recommends a "relative paranoia" as the mainstay of identity -

the psyohoLoglcal counterpart to those discrete systems of discourse

which Oedipa has already encountered. There is of course a minimal poss-

ibillty that Hil-ariua - like Manny di Presso - does have something to

be paranoid about; but 1n the absence of real fsraelis 'rcoming in the

wlndows" he Ls just crazy. OedLpa, however, requires a more elusivet

Less visually verlfiable, form of authentiflcation for her Tristero

c1ues. She has witnessed a Tristero mail delivery, tracking a Tristero

postman across Los Angeles - so the temporal structure is tangible

enough - yet sttll the meaning of the overalL structure eludes her.

She has been sensltlzed to the idea that invisible, but apparently

real, worlds co-exist wlth the present; Cohenrs pseudo-sacramBntal wj-ne

inftially instllls the concept, Jesris Arrabalrs political philosoph-

izing embel-Lishes it, and her experlence.of a deaf-mute delegation seems

to demonstrate ít. As she is whirled around the dance floor, amid a

throng of deaf-mute couples, Oedfpa braces herself for the Ínevitable

coLlisions. None of the dancers can hear the rrealt music, each couple

dences to an fndtvidual tune and 1n a different step: rrwhatever was in

the felLow's head"[p.9?). But there BtrB no colllslons; the only explana-

tLon for this unexpected phenomenon 1s

some unthinkable order of muslc, r..

a choreography ln whlch each couple

meshed easy, predestined. Something they

all heard with an extra 6ense atrophied

in herself (p.9?).

The narratLve appears to be alluding to some equivalent of the trad-

ltiona1 "music of the spheres", a dlvine harmony which is the archetype

of imperfect, temporal muslc - the kind of quasi-Platonic Idea that

Oedipa is seeklng, which 1s contlnual-Iy prom5-sed to her but always Ís

denied. The deaf-mutes seem to have access to a central- "pulse", the

inforrning center of the structure in whlch they are involved. Oedipa

can see that this situation conforms to Amabal r s definition of ran

anarchist miracle'r, but she has no ldiom with which to describe it and

"wlth no name for it, was only demoralízed"(p,g?). Here, she witnesses

a number: of discrete, idJ-osyncratic mind-structures meshíng together in

a mutual recognltion of a hJ-gher order of real-ity - separate and yet

unified. It is such a meeningful unity which -she persists in pursulng

amid the independent Tristero systems found in her culture.

Her husband, Mucho, discovers a form of unity or community through

music - though wlth the help of LSD - which he transforms into "joyful"paranold spheres about the I'central pu1se of hlmseIf". Unllke Hilarius,

or Oedlpa, Mucho Ís not confronted by the problem of reconciling

dlfferent forms of verbal meaning ( ttteral versus metaphortc ); he

reduces Language to its Lowest denomlnato" - sound. He reduces "chords,

and timbres, and words too" (p.105)¡ to "the basic frequencies and

harmonics" (p.106); so that among this aural and verbal difference he

flnds a shared quallty or sameness, an entroplc homogeneJ.ty which he

lnterprets as community, ìthe brotherhood of man'. It ls thls sort of

unlty, or rather coherlng, whlch J.s produced through all- of the pare-

noid, solípsistlc and narcissistlc modes of perception explored by the

narrative. And l-ike them lt is motivated by a níghtmare awareness of

"nada", nothingness, of the vold. The absence of a transcendental

slgnlfier, a Word which ls the origin and center of temporal meaning,

motfvates the prollferation of lndividual neaning-systems which so con-

fuse and demorallze Oedipa. Thls metaphyslcal dimensfon of Muchots LSIL

induced nspectrum analysis'r 1s expressed by a typographlcal- punr

yourd have this b1g, God, maybe aaaa

couple hundred millLon chorus saying

'rrlch, chocolaty goodnessa together,

and it woul-d all be the same voice (p.106),

and "you", or at least Mucho, could also have 'rthj.s big God't. But

although Mucho discovers a perceptual system which permits him to }ive

peacefullyr it 1s galned at the expense of his ídentity. As the "central

pulse" of the system, Mucho Ís overwhelmed by the concept of unity - he

is the community that he perceives - progressively becomlng more

"generlo", i'a walklng assembly of man"(p,109). In this, he is directl-y

opposed to Oedipa and the directlon of her quest. As f remarked at the

opening of this chapter, Oedipa leaves her "towerrr to embark on a search':j

for ldentfty, foi a transcendental signífier whlch wj.ll describe the

nature of her world and denote her place wi.thin it. Such a subjective

accommodatfon with the "voldi as Mucho'sr. Fallopian¡s or Dribletters

Ís insufflcient for her, her quest 1s directed towards the revelatÍon

of an obJectfve lrogos. But thus far, this quest has conslsted of a

constant vaclllatlon between the promlse and defemal of revelatfon, and

a demoralizfng progresslon of fallures to establlsh such an objective

reality.

Such fallure ls the dlrect result of the lack of significant

dlstinctions inherent in these hermeneutlc systems. The sementic l-imlta-

tions imposed by the self¡ as the center of paranoid, narcissistÍc and

solipsistic meanlngs, determine the slgnlfylng capacíty of the word and

l-nvariably refer 1t back to the self, forming what is essentially a

complex tautology. 0edipa, however, is searching for a Ìggos which would

deflne her se1f, rather than be defined by it, by articulating a system

of distlnctions which would render the semiotics of her world readable.

But she is caught l-n the allegoric paradox of attempting to dfscover

through words that which lies beyond them yet is the origin of them and

j"s ñanlfest Ín these signs. ContlnuaLl-y she is brought back to the

nealizatLon thet the temporaÌ constraints of language and the self

constitute the medium in which she must work, aLong with the growing

äwareness that they are subject to the distortlng influences of time,

entropy and death. On1y a figural hermeneutíc, whích bridges these dis-

ruptÍons by reveallng a tlmeless, di.vine, continuity, can pr^ovide an

exit fr^om the llnguistic maze of her TrLstero puzzJe.

Without the interpretatfve dlstinctlons - between types of verbal

meanf-ng and thelr relatfons - upon whl-ch figuralf-sm is based, Oedlpa

attempts to avoid the amblguitles of language through a direct, non-

verbalr eccess to rneaníng. So she searches out Emory Bortz, edlton of

The Courierrs TraEedy r ln the hope of dl-scovering the source of

$lharfinger I s Trystero.

"I would l-ike to find out, " she presently

plungåd, "something about tnå nlstoricaÌ

Ufharfinger. Not so much the verbal otle. rl

[0.IIs).

But the neply that she recelves confronts her once more with the fact

semantic ternporalíty, the,fact that wharflnger 1d dead and that any

knowledge of the Trystero whlch he rnay have possessed has passed wtth

him, succumbed to "the irreversible process" of death. So she is again

reminded that all she has are words ! and the Trystero words of her

paperback edition are, according to Bortz, "pirated "' Bowdlerized "'

firlisprints . Gah. Gorrupt. " (p.113) . 0bvlously, not only cleath can disrupt

the process of meaning, but it 1s the most insurrnountable obstacle of

Oedipa's guest for an anterlor source of meanlng. Bortz tells her as

much when he nominates Driblette as the man most capable of evoking

"the microcosm of that play as lt must have surrounded Wnarfingerts

living mind"(p.11a); but Driblette too is deed, Bortzr errd his graduate

students, assume that Driblette's non-relÍance on language provides an

avenue to non-verbal meanlng; but the meaning which Driblette formulates

thus is located 1n an indeterminate region, difficul-t to authenticate

or evaluate. Still¡ the news of his ileath and the discovery that the

performance which she witnessed was the only one to include mention of

the Tristero prclmpt a shlft in Oedipa's search for an anterior meaning

of or ínformation about the Tristero. That is, her question rwhere does

The tourier's Tragedy get off with its ''Tristero' line ? "[p ' ?S) is

supplanted by her questioning of "why Driblette had put in those two

extra lines that night?"(p.121). So she accompanies Bortz and his

students to a nlght-tlms wake at Driblette's graveside. As she sitst

hoping to communicate with whatever ramained of Dribletter "whatever

coded tenacity of protein might improbabl/ have held on six feet beIow"

[p.121), Oedipa repeats her experience with Maxwe]-lrs Demon. Again she

trj-es to make contact with an lnvislble, impalpable, realÍty, to receive

some sign of its reality.

Now, j-t would be a sign in the form of informatÍon, a telepathic

message expl-alning whether hls "wal-k lnto the sea had anything to do

with Tristero"(p.121). But as ever, the difficulty of determining

motives, of diåtingulshing between the rcal and the imaginedr defeats

Had he even known why? No one could begin

to trace it. A hundred hangups, permuted,

combined - sex, money, ilLness, despair with

the history of hLs time and place¡ who knew.

Ghanglng the script had no clearer motive

than his sufclde. There was the same whimsy

to both (p.121).

Oedipa too, reLying on the duplicJ,tous evidence of her senses to determ-

ine the success or failure of her attempt, cannot distinguish the

objectively real from projected fantasy: r'she felt briefly penetrated,

as if the bright winged thing had actually made it to the sanctuary of

her heart"(p.J-21), but as with Maxwell's Demon this may be 'ron1y a

retinal twitch, a misflred nerve ceIl't[p.?B). Intuition or telepathy is

an inadequate access to knowledge without a satisfactory evaluative

basÍs of cleer distinctions among ontologíca1 and epistemological modes i

her linguistlc problem applies equally to aI1 other areas of her quest

and her entropic culture/text.

Gonsequentl-y, she returns to her wrítten texts and particularly

toBortz|s,.Wharf1ngerJ-ana',,Sourcetextsto@.

Here she learns of a pornographic version of the play which one scholar!,y

opinion attributes to a radical Puritan sect, the Scurvhamites. As a

"Scurvhemite project" the play would have been rewritten, the words

changed, in order to'rdamn it eternally"(,p.L16). Analogous to this proj-

ect is the operation of the Trlstero¡ which as we have seen dísplaces

wsrds fram the conventional signifying relationships of metaphor and

literalÍsm i-nto unfamflÍar modes such as "ritual reluctance" which are

dtfficult to make 1egÍb1e. In oppositíon to this, Bortzrs summary of

the Scurvhamlte metaphysic lntroduces to the narratlve e relatíve1y

explicit account of the characteristically all-egoric Ínterpretative

world view, with the exception that allegory treats "Creation,' as a

vast, intricate text, rather than "machine", j-n which God is its

transcendental signifier and hence its "prime rTìoVErrr.

Their central hangup had to do with

predestination. There were two kinds, Nothing

for a Scurvhamite ever happened by accident,

Greation was a vast, intricate machine. But

one part of Ít, the ScurvhamÍte part, ran off

the will of God, its prime mover. The rest

ran off some opposite Principle, somethi.ng

blind, soulÌess; a brute automatism that led

to eternal death {p.116).

Although this Scurvhamite 'rOthero is obviously akin to the Lady V.n an

alternative name for it would surely be entropy; a non-hurnan principle

or soulless 1aw which represents an inexorable and universal tendency

towards death and is also available to this sort of theological interp-

retatlonr as an equlvalent of satan and his death-dealing temporal

lnfluence. Thls aspect 1s emblematlzed, in the woodcuts accompanying

the pornographic version of The Gourierts Tragedv , by the figure of

Death hovering in the background of many of the scenes. As Bortz remarks,

this j,s a pecul-iarly medieval conception of Evil, of the Other - as isAngelors in the play itself - the concept of evil as the force which

matches and undermínes Truth 1n all of its manifestations. And, as ís

the tendency of the narratlve, the Scurvhamites "fe1t Trystero would

symbolize the Other quite well,,(p.I1Z).

oedlpa has unravelled, to a ñdemoralizingil extent, the linguistic

or semiotic assoclations and affillations of the Tristero with death,

in her own culture, and has seen how it ernbodies and so reveals the

unacknowledged death-wish which Lies at its center. As a sociologicalrotherr, the defining opposlte of the legÍtimate culture, the Establish-

mentr the Tristero's meaning is quite apparent. But as a transcendental,

demonic iOtherñ its force is manifest in less direct ways. oedipa

requires that Bortz explicate her Tristero l-ines wíth1n this context

before she can understand its relevance¡ "Therhallowed skein of starst

is Godrs wiI1, But even that cantt ward, or guard, somebody who has an

appointment with Trystero"(p.11?'). Yet she st11I feels the inescapable

necessity of askÍng, explicitly, "lvhat was Trystero?rr, even though she

does so wj-th "the right, vertiginous sense of fluttering out over an

abyss"[p.11?). Her quest confronts her with "the void'r, although she

does not formurate it in these terms untir later;,her quest for a

semiotic continuity, an anterior, sacred one, leads ínstead to an

absence, of ambiguous orÍgin" But even this is ambiguous: ttre source

text which Bortz lends to her is written with unfamiliar signs; 'rwords

ending in e'sr s's that looked líke f's, capitalized nounsr y,s where

irs shoul-d've been. 'I cantt read thisr r 0edlpa said,,(p.lL?).- perhaps

thj-s is true also of her Tristero-text " Sti11, the clues which she has

garnered take the form of synptoms, symptoms of entropy, which in turn

are similar to tþe disruptive effects wrought by Evit upon an otherwise

unifiedr fj-gural system. rn other words, entropy, f-ike Falsehood,

disrupts communication by eroding distinct linguistic categonies, con-

fusing the signifylng functj-on of language, lsolating people and so

giving ríse to a prolíferation of esoteric discourses, dissÍpating the

energy of the cultural system in a process wnicn leads to .eternal

death tr.

Oedipa discovers this proJect of disruptLng communícation to be

the defining characterj.stic of the historical Tristero, qs she pieces

together fregments of information gleaned from obscure texts. Llke a

jigsaw puzzLe she constructs or is able "to fit together^ this account

I58.of how the organization began"[p.1]9). And she finds a motive for the

"campaÍgn of obstruction" in the "constant theme, disinheritance'l

[p,120). The Tristero thus forrns the banner of the Preterlte, the non-

Elect, those passed over by the social Establishment and perhaps also

by God. Whether the Tristero ls in fact a transcendental force or simply

a secular phenomenon ls not Oedipa's dilemma alone; Bortz is able to

speculate an historlcal precedent.

If Trlstero ls able to maintain even partial

secrecy, if Thurn and Taxls have no clear

ldea who their adversary is, or how far its

influence extends, then many of them must

come to believe 1n somethi-ng very like the

Scurvhamiters b1ind, automatic anti-God (p.124).

However, accordÍng to Bortz's scenario, as the conditions which supp-

orted such a paranotd mode of perception, of interpretation, recede

then 'rthe secular Tristero" becomes visibler "a historical principle"

is reduced to the "now human enemyrr(p.l-2a). And so it may be wf.th

Oedipa's Tristero; there exlst elther the secular processes of entropy

or a demonLc force informing them, eÍther she has been lnterpreting her

clues paranoícaIly or her essentially figural quest has uncovered a

sacredr though satanic, design operating in the temporal signs of her

culture. She has yet to find an interpretative mode which would deter-

mine the ontological nature of the Tristero; an epistemological failure

which may be the result of a demonic ontology,

Another possfbillty, one whlch ls brought home to her with

increasing force, 1s that the Tristero may in some way orÍginate inPferce Inverarity, desplte the history which she has been able to con-

struct. For this very textual quest - which i-mpels 0edipa from one text

to another, from one mode of discourse to the next - was initially

motlvated by a text: Inverarityrs wiIl. Throughout, the narratJ-ve plays

upon the varlous signlficances of the word ntestament i. The previous

publlcation of an excerpt in Esquire is acknorryledged by The Gryincr of

Lot 49 and by name - "The Wsrld (fnis One), The Flesh (Mrs oedipa Maas'),

and the Testament of Pierce Inverarity" - whil-st the portion published

ln @!þI remains unnamed. Thus, it would seem, the specÍfica11y

religÍous connotations of the wsrd are invoked. This title names the

allegoric impulse of Oedipa's quest, her attempt to discover an lnherent

flgural relationship between the semiotics of her wsrl-d, her sel-f and

a pretextual, sacred !æ,. "The World" and'rThe Flesh" ere relatively

unambiguous as discrete entitles¡ and until the question of the Word ís

introduced to them. Partlcularly this is the case in vlew of the prob-

lematic status of Inverarityrs testament: whether it be simply secular,

demonic or divine. Gaught amid these alternatives, Oedipa tends to

speculate in Pentecostal- ter.rns. That, just as the descent of the Holy

Ghost revealed Ghrist's wlll- and bestowed the gtft of speech, of communi-

cation, upon the whole of creation, if she could bring Inverarity's will

into a state of "puIsing stell-iferous Meaningr'(p.58), then the 'iintent

ts csmmunicate'r whlch she has perceived in temporal signs would be

realized,

Cerûainly it is such a dÍrect mode of communl-cation, a dÍrect

access to knowledge, that Oedipa 1s in need of. Pentecostal revelation,

the dÍrect understanding of the Wsrd thro.ugh an act of linguistic grace,

the inscrlption of meanlnS by dLvine Íllurmination, ís not subject to the

distorting effects of tlme and entropy. Yet Oedipars quest ts constrained

by temporal intermediaries, and a question which she must confront is

the problem of whether a sacred "Otherr is manifest in Inverarity and

his estate, the source to which alL of her clues 1ead.

lrleaning what? That Bortz, along with Metzger,

Gohen, Driblette, Koteks, the tatooed sailorin San Francisco, the W.A.S.T.E. camj_ers

sherd seen - that all of them were Pierce

Inverarj-ty's men? Bouqht? Or 1oyat, for free,

for fun, to some grandÍose practical joke

he rd cooked up all for her embarrassment, or

terrorizing, or moral improvement? ... so

labyrlnthine that it must have meaning beyond

just a practical joke (pp.122-28).

Againn 0edipa is not satj-sfied with the immedÍate or obvious meaning

and again the source of some hidden meaning is inaccesslble, dead; so

although she has here a contÍnufty Bmong the coincidences of her quest,

she is reft to speculate about its potentlal meaning.

A conventional allegorlc narrative wou1d, through allusions made

to its sacred pretext, relate sush a temporal contÍnuity to an informing

transcendental signÍfier, the anterlor unifyíng One. But The Cryinq of

Lot 49 works Ín an opposite dfrection: lts pretextual antecedent, the

Egyptian god Thoth, points to a dÍsruptive metaphysical force informing

Oedipars world and her quest. This is apparent particularly in terms ofthe narrativets Pentecostal reference. ft is e Gourlerts ed which

rnakes the namative's only explicit alÌusÍon ts Pentacost. There Ercole,

the self-styled ,,zany paraclete,., rips the lying tongue of Domenico frcrn

hJ-s head, impales lt on his rapier, "Bets the tongue aflame and waving

lt around like a madman concludes the act by screaming,

Thy pitil-ess unmannlng ls most meet,

Thinks Ercole the zany Paraclete.

Descended this malign, thholy Ghost,

Let us begin thy frlghtful pentecost (p.4?).

This 'rParac1ete", rather than bestowing the gift of communlcation, dis-

rupts it in a most unambiguous fashion. And it is such a dísruptive

project which has been attributed to the Tristero - emblematízed by its

muted posthorn symbol - as it was to the Lady V., that "Unholy Ghost"

or spiritus Ínfernus. So the concept of Pentecost, as it appears ln the

narratlve, whíIst polnting to the figuraL basis of the quest and the

potential status of Oedipa's clues as !ig!I89, intersects with the pre-

text to prophesy the failure of the figural' quest or, at Ieast, Íts

indeterminate nature¡ its failure to reveal the sort of figural relatim-

shÍp which Oedipa seeks. For with Èhe proximity sf Thoth to the narra-

tivers texts, including Inverarity's wi1l, the process of meaning is

irreversibly disrupted and Oedipa is left, as she has been throughout,

poised between meaning and non-meanlng, presence and absence, knowledge

and non-knowledge.

She interprets this Índeterminacy into four alternatives: either

a'reaL pl-ot has been msunted against her, or she is fantasizing one;

elther a real TrÍstero does exfst as "a real alternative to the exit-

lessness, to the absence of surprise to life'r(p.128), or she has para-

noically constructed it. These alternatlves pivot around the central,

unanswered question; the ontological status of the Tristero, whether or

not it is objectlvely real. ft is a problem which overwhelms her now,

although it has been a part of her quest all al-eng. After her rydemoral-

izi-ngr lesson in the atomized nature of her Republic - j-n her nlght

descent - Oedipa hopes that she is suffering a o:urabLe mental iIl-ness.

For th1s, oh God, was the vsid. There was

nobody who could help her. Nobody in the

worl-d. They were all on something, madn

possibl-e enemies, dead (p.128).

In the development of her quest the lsoJ-ating effects wrought by the

Tristero, or named by it, have gradually attached to her. The language

of the Tristero and her attempts to understand it have isolated her from

her accustomed human contacts; ít has become her esoteric discourse.

And so she discovers the failure of love as a means of cornmunfcation in

this entropíca11y decaying world; love which was Dante's recourse vlhen

all other modes of discourse failed him. For sympathetic love or carltas

is the emotionaL correlative to a figural mode of interpretationr estab-

lishÍng as j-t does a meaningful contact on both the physical and spirit-

uaI planes, simul-taneousl-y, Just as figuralism relates the apparent or

literal meaning to an invisible or spirj-tual significarnce in the sign.

Oedipa experiences thLs Ín her eneounler with the dying sai.lor; there

she reallzes the capaclty of l-ove to overcome the barriers of time and

the self but this realÍzation cannot prevent her alienation from Metzger,

Driblette¡ Fal-lopian or Mucho, as each assumes the appearance of a

closed system.

Neither can the rapid accumulation of Tristero clues fill tlinis

"voJ.dn; instead, 1t J-eäds her to desperation; physical illness, real or

imagined¡ and attempted suicide. Not surprÍsingly then, she turns to

the anonyrnous inamorati: nrltts overr' she saíd, rTheytve saturated me.

From here on Ir11 enly close them out.t"(p.I33). But llke Dante, and

George in GlLes Goat-Efoy, it ls this admisslon of ignorance, her

acknowledged inablllty to read her figurel signs, that prepares the way

for a final revel-atÍon. For Oedipa thls means the ùll-oss of bearingsn,

of "barriers between herself and the rest of the Iand", so that San

NarcÍso surrenders lts "resÍdue of uniqueness",

became a name again, u,as assumed back into

the Arnerlcan continuity of crust and mantle.

Pierce fnverarity was realIy dead (p.133).

The figural or spiritual dimenslon of Oedipa's quest is not realized

in the narrative - that is left to the reader - her's is primarily a

secular revelation. But Íts potentlal to lnclude a sacred analogue is

implicit in her interpretations of hls wi1I, in the possibilíty that

Inverarity had rÈfscovered the Tristero and encrypted it in his w1lIr or

that, as "the dark Angel", he had devised a plot, to survive death as a

paranola. Either way fnverarity, like Satan, reveals the existential

fact of death. The reality which Oedípa flnds coded into his testament

is an Amerlca which acknowledges death, the ArnerÍca which is home to

the disinherl-ted, the al-lenated, the betrayed, all those denied the

illusÍon of an Amerlcan Drearn, those "in exile from somewhere else Ín-

visibLe yet congruent with the cheered land she Ìíved in"(p.135). ThÍs

is the "invisible'r reality which Oedipa discovers to be the "signifÍed"

of her clues¡ añd the "true continuityrr among them. Beyond thisr "She

just didn't know"(p.134).

The on1-y verifiable source of the testament's meaning would be

Inverarity himself, but his reLlabilíty Ís undermined by Oedipa's rq-

cellection of their fÍnal conversatlon. Modulating from Transylvanian

and cornic-Negro to Panchuco and "his Lamont Granston voice"(p.3), the

phone caLl ends fn sil-ence and "quiet ambiguity't. AlL that is leftt

echoing 5-n Oedipars memory, is his promise of a visít fr'om'1the Shadow":

perhaps the "Unholy Ghost'r or maþe the elusive hidden meaning which

Oedipa is led to seek. Inverarity, with this sequence of different

accentsr prefigures the Babel--Like proliferatj-on of discourses whích is

to dog 0edlpars quest. Gertainly he appears to have been aware of what

such s quest would involve and discover, and as she realizes this 0edipa

gai-ns "a new compassion for the cul-de-sac herd tried to find a way out

ofr for the enigma his efferts had created"(0.13+). This new cornpassion,

taking the place of her earlier self-pitying tears, represents the

knowledge whlch she has gained, the broadening of her perceptual peri-

meters to embrace a fuller aìivareness of her self and her world. Like

Oedipus, Oedipa learns how impJ-lcated she is or has been, Iiving a

blinkered suburban existence, in the decay of her culture.

It is her awareness of entropy, the gradual decay of "diversity"

into probability, that facllitates some understanding of those who

gather beneath the Tristerors banner. And it is entropy, manifest in

linguistic terms, which prevents the reconciliation of meanings into a

coherent hermeneutfc system, leaving Oedipa wÍth a series of binary

possibilities: "l-ike walking among matrices of a great digital computer. "

BehÍnd the hieroglyphíc streets there would

be a transcendent meaning, or enly earthn In

the songs Mi1es, Dean, Serge and Leonard sang

there was eÍther some flraction of the truth ts

numinous beauty (as Mucho now believed) or

only a power spectrum. .. r Another mode of

meaning behind the obvious, or none. EÍther

Oedfpa in the orbiting ecstasy of a true

paranola, or a real Tristero [pp.136-37).

The conventional allegoric hero/ine begins with speculations such as

these and completes the quest with a recognition of the implied,

informing One. Oedipa, however, begins wlth the intuition that a sacred

logos 'rintends'r to communlcate through temporal figurae and learns to

accept thÍs set of possibÍl-ities, the indeterminate balance between,

presence and absence. For wlthin the context of an entropÍc culture/texb

the metaphorj-c basls of flguralism is impaÍred, lt becomes the ceaseless

searching for "that magical Other who would reveal- herself out of the

roar of relays, monotone litanies ,.. whose brute repetítlon must some-

day call into being the trigger for the unnameabl"e act, the recognition,

the Word"(p,I36). In thls context, metaphor ceases to be a lie and

becomes a "thrust at truth" only with a tacit agreement on the nature

of its unspoken'rtenoftr. And thls ls a "mlracLer', the "secular miracle

of communÍcatlon"(p,135); but as the narrative suggests, lts theologtcal

counterpart 1s the figural míracle of the lVord.

As 0edipa has dLscovered, spontanelty is of the essence of this

"miracle"; once" "routinlzed'r - to borrow a term from Gravityrs Rainbow

- and formulated l-nto an interpretative system, this significance Ís

subjeet to entropy and the confusion it creates among linguistic categ-

orLes and meanings. It ls, in any case, ephemeral; once articulated all-

truths become tl-me-bound and recede lnto an ÍrretrlevabLe past. But

despite this Oedipa, like any aI-legoric hero/ine cannot accept the

ldea of a purely llteral- realLty, devoLd of any'!invisible'3 meaning.

For either there was some Tristero beyond

the legacy of America, or there was Just

Anerica and if there was just America then

it seemed the only way she could continue,

and manage to be at all relevant to it, was

as an a1ien, unfurrowed, assumed full- circle

lnto some paranoia (p.13?).

SignlficantS-y, Oedipa chooses paranoia as a potential mode of perceptlon

rather than sollpsÍsm or narclsslsm; she.would remaln "unfurrowed", not

constrain"d or imprisoned by her own maans of penceptJ.on and interp-

retatlon. As I mentioned earIler, paranoJ.a 1s a mode whlch, whflst

predlcated on the assumption of an unseen motive Ln hl-storlcaL and

verbal sÍgns, retalns the awareness of relattvlty, of the fact of co-

incldence. Paranol-a l-s the neurosl-s most akln to a fÍgura1 herm'eneutÍc,

sharLng lts assurnptlon of an anterlor source of meanlng or, as Foucault

15outs lt, the "soverelgnty of an original Textrr. Actua1ly,

Foucault

describes paranoia ln terms slmll-ar to those of the fÍgural interpreta-

tion of a fallen world - a world in whlch a meaningful system of

resemblance is divorced from l-ts slgns - and the paranoid as one who fs

therefore "g!!g@! in æþgy":

Beneath the established slgns, and in spf.te

of themr he hears another, deeperr discourse

whlch recalls the time when words glittered

ln the universal resemblance of thlngs ...

the Soverelgnty of the Same, so difficult to

express, eclipses, the dlstinction existing

between signs. 16

Such a notlon of '!the Same't poses grave problems to Oedipa's quest: the

necesslty¡ and extreme dffficulty, of dÍstinguishing coincidence from

true repetftion, the repetition which is stasls from that which is the

progressive manifestatlon of a dlvÍne eternal pattern, temporaf con-

spJ-racy from sacred hierophany; uLtimately 1t 1s the necessity of dis-

tlnguishing between the'"OO"""rnce of similitude and a real, meqningful

continuity.

But to make a va1id distlnctlon 0edipa requires the knowledge of

the infonning Iógos, either through the direct "epileptÍc Word" or

through'a sacred pretext¡ and both are denied her. She possesses the

will - psychologlcally and llteraJ.Iy - necessary to fígural perception

but lacks the means to develop her understanding. Gonsequently, the'figtral',dl-mension of l'ier quest remains unfulfilled, she is unable to

.''reLate her !@g. to a transcendental scheme. Thoth, whose typoLoglcal

role never becomes apparent to'Oedipa, provldes a metaphysicaL endorse-

ment for thls lndetermlnacy, through the characterístics whfch he shares

with the Trl-stero. Like the Tristero he presÍdes over the organlzation

of death, 1s lnvolved in conspiracl-es and works at the dislocation of

identity. Thoth motLvates the proliferatlon of Language lnto languages

which are simtlar to the isolated, esoteric discourses marked by the

muted posthorn and, most fmportantly, he is the god of cryptographyr of

the hidden meanlngs whlch appear to coirstitute the Trlsterors semantlc

territory. In fact, Thoth, the Tristero, Oedipa's quest and the narra-

tlve alL íntersect'"= " "Kabbalistlc paradÍgm of the hiddeñ word ¡¡¡ the

forty-nlnè Ìevels of meanlng in and È'eneath the wrj-tten Ìetter"I? - rnd

in the failure of such a hÍdden meanlng to be artLculated; although the

narrative ends ln typically lndeterminate fashlon with Oedipa still

waitlng on ilthe crying of lot 49"[p.138).

The penuì-tlmate quallty of the narrative's IinJconclusion oblÍges

the reader to flIl 1n the hermeneutic gap, to determine the nature of

the implied sacred order, perhaps by recourse to a personal pretext.

But the absence of a valid, and valorfzed, interpretation of divine

reality pos.es eplstemological and ontologÍcaL probLems alL throughout

0edipars typological quest, by underrnining the legibility of her textual

worl-d. Figurallsm attempts to formulate a significant commentary on the

semiotics of the world by relylng on the medíation of an authentlc

anterior interpretation. The 'rsovereignty of an original Text" is the

basic assumptlon of such a commentary, fulfì]]ed 1n the perception of a

unity or: Oneness between temporal signs and an eternaÌ Text, The sear-ch

for a valid text whlch does explaln the true nature of the worLd also

consumÞs the characters of Gravltvts Ralnbow. And not surprislngly, para-

nofa l-s the cognltive mode most frequently employed in thfs ellegoric

quest for a transcendental slgnJ-fier, for a power to leglslate between

the nr.¡minous and the noumenon, the sacred and the pr-ofane, and to deten-

mine the ldentlty of the force manlpulatlng hfstory: the Word or'"The

Ff rm"?

CHAPTER FOUR

THE NLI\IINOUS, THE NOtñlENoN AND THE TEXT

rN GBAVITYIS BATNBOW.

The attempt to lsolate the sacred from the profane constitutes

the motivating force that underlies the generlc structure of allegory.

fn terms of OedJ.pars quest, this force fs continually frustrated by a

'sustaihed deferral of the promlsed revelatlon, a deferraL that arises

necessarily from an aLlenated relatlonshlp between the narratlve in

which'she exlsts and J-ts pretext, This aLienatfon effectively dlsrupts

any cognitlve access she may have to a transcendenta3- signifier - a

sacredr leglslative, power - and as a result the plot structure of The

Crying of Lot 49 fs "foreshortened" , as was that of V. Perhaps in

response to this foreshortening, but certainly concurrent with the

alíenation of pretext from narrative, there occurs a modification in

the character of the allegoric hero/!n".I

To return briefly to an earlier dlscussion: in the introductory

chapterr allegory was defined largrely 1n terms of the nature of the

hero and of hls quÞst. There I argued that the role of the hero fs

primaríIy that of a surrogate-reader, derl-ved from the task assigned to

him by the narrative which requÍres an exploration of various interp-

retatlve systems, before figuraltsm ls recognÍzed as the method by

whlch the capacity of Language to slgnify extra-Iitera1 Étruths" can be

determlned. An f"ntegral part _of this hermeneutíc deveLopment is the

reconstt'uctlon of understandfng - the acquisitlon of allegorJ-c lfteiracy,

Because lnitially the her^o Ls controlled by postlapsarf.an cognÍtive and

Llnguistlc condLtions, he must oonstruct a dÍscourse which, idea1l"y,

transfoms the signs of his "fall.en{ world-text l-nto the trsnsparent

purve)¡ors of sacred meanLng, so that an obscurantist texture becomes a

luminous Text. And as his proftcJ.ency in reading tne signs of Truth -logos - increases, the extent to which he has been subJect to a'¡falser

system of control becomes apparent. 'rGonventional'r allegory places the

hero finally ln a position from which he is made aware of his self,

language and hlstory as aspects of a signlfying system that is uI-

timateLy controlled by the Word; a system that is however vulnerable to

false construction. No such finallty, no epÍphany, ls provided for by

postmodernist allegoryi instead, OedÍpa and Stencil discover the extent

to whlch a false logos controls and corrupts access to a nunlnous

tcenter'|. They are, consequently, confronted with e choice: to continue

lndefinitely in a frustrated quest or make a leap of faith that may well

land them in 'f the Voidr.

But Gravlty's Bainbow suggests that, potentla1Ly, the system

controlled by a false logos - splritus infernus or unholy Ghost - may

itsel-f be vulnerable to an alternative, redeeming, constructJ-on, that

'rsomewhere, among the wastes of the world, ls the key that wi1-L bring

us back, restore us to our Earth and to our freedom"[p.5251. st11]-

there remaÍns, of course, the central dllemma of distlnguishing (waste'

from the word, of differentiatlng between forms of contrcl. Thls 1s

compl-icated Ín Gravltv's HaÍnbow by an apparent similarity between the

phenomenal manlfestatfons of "the Firm'r and the traditional figuralrnanifestations of the [Jord, both of which are unified, central.ized,

systems of signs, Flowever, where the logos control-s a semlotlo system

that presumes to point the way to spirÍtuà1 salvation, the Firm j-s

concerned wlth a more secular form of salvatlon - "A Nlckel saved"

[p.SOa) - its control of the wor].d dlrected toward keeplng "its own

tlny desperate fraction showing a proflt,,ip.4I2). Llke the soclety of

Lady Meed, outllned in chapter one, the worrd of the "system'r is a

radlcally rfallenfr wor1d, domlnated by serf-Ínterest, its apostasy

taking the form of rationalizatlon or "Oríglnal Sln - the Latest name

for that is llodern Analysis - but 1t happens that subsequent sin is

harder to atone for"(p.?22). The sin subsequent to rationalization is

insulatlon; it is the corruption of language, science, psychology, fiÌm,

mathematics, as epistemological forrns, so that rather than increase

understanding they narrovú the range of consciousness, ínsuÌating it

against si.gns of the sacred, the pantheistlc continuity upon which the

entire narratlve is predlcated.

Epistemology appears as a means of control in aIJ- allegory which

is, as I have repeated, concerned with the 'ranalysis of words as

ambiguous tools of thought, capable not onÌy of revealing a true cogni-

tion but aLso of generatfng a corruption of understanding. "2 It is in

terms of a pervasive corruption, where al-l- the means of understanding

are controlled by a false logos, that the heroes of Gravity's Rainbow

attempt to find the 'rkeyrr to or basis for a true cognitlon. Posed are

.. o two questions. First, whet is the real

nature of synthesis? And then: what is the

reaL nature of control-? (p.16?).

Butr as in all of the rfalLenÉ all-egoric worl-ds we have so far examÍned,

an immediate effect of the nFal-1i is the breakdown of cognitlve cat-

egories so that "in the Zone categorles have been blurred badly, The

status of the narfie you miss, love and search for has grourn ambiguous

and remote"(p.3O3). By dlsruptlng the process of sf-gnification, the

Firm obêcures a coherent figural system end subsequently the alì-egoric

quest. rrln the Zone, in these days, there is endless simulatlon f¡.

¡rour real targeis are hard to come by"(p,489). The signs of the numinous

are rendered Íllegib1e, a basls for distinguishing them from rwastei

seemlngly inaccessible, and supplanting them is a hemeneutic system

contr-olIed by what I have terrned the "norrnerìon". The term - but not the

concept - is borrowed from Kant. In the Gritlque of Pure Beason. a

noumenon is defined in oppositÍon to a phenomenon as an inteIlÍgible

rather than sensible entity, "a thing which is not to be thought as

obJect of the senses but as a thlng Ín itselfr solely through a pure

understandlng."3 AccordÍngly, rrProverbs for Paranoidsrlñ advises that

"You may never get to touch the Master, but you can tickle his crea-

tures"[p.2S?). For the prfmary heroes of Gravftyrs Rainbow - Slothrop,

Enzlan and Tchitcherine - the revelatlon of 'rthe Master'r, "the Firtn",

the "noumenon"¡ as the center of a global consplracy or cosmic cabal

takes the place of the tradÍtional a1-).egoric revelation of the Wordt

written ln the form of an epiphany, a pure access to knowledge or

understanding. Not the culmination of a developing figural consciousness

however, this postmoderníst eplphany ís a paranoÍd awarenesst

the leading edge, of the dÍ-scovery that everythlng

1s connected everything in the Greationr a

secondary lllumination - not yet blindingly Onet

but at least connected¡ and perhaps a route In for

those I1ke Tchitcherine who are hel-d at the edge. . ! r{p. ?03) "

Stencll, Oedfpa, Slothrop and Enzlan are, like Tchitcheriner held at

the edge of a promised revelatlon, polsed on the l-nterface between

presence and absence¡

It may well be that the dlscovery of a false lggos - eXpressed 1n

a faLse form of synthesls and control - ls all that a postmodernÍst

allegorJ"c hero/ine ls capable of, glven the epistemologJ-cal conditions

that determine the context in whlch they exist. Speciflcal-1-y, the shift

1n the directlon of the quest, away from Truth as a reallsable goa1,

dlsplaces also the "lnner wordÍ as a motlvatlng factor, The post-

modernÍet hero stlll seeks a transcendental signifier that rcenters'

both en external world-text and lts tnteriority context ( tne ¡self")

but his capacity to reallse lt is severely attenuated. Paranoiar the

dominant perceptual mode of Gravit 's Bainbow works to define identity

as a functlon of some external control and so precludes from the quest

consl-derations of ful-fllment whlch ls generated internally, trSe1fr is

constructed as the subJect of a sinÍster conspiracy; that is, as the

context within whlch thls plot is written. An aspect of the hegemony of

the noumenon, the personallty ls annexed and incorporated Ínto a nêwr

pseudo-figural system as the theomorph¡ the rrfnner word", 1s supplanted

by a cr¡ptomorph. The allegoric self 1s a space withÍn which the ego ls

written by I'Them" - be They the forces of Truth or, as now, of corrup-

tíonr So the shell-shocked vlctims of Their t'I{arrr "out of each catharsis

nise (as) new chlldren, painless, egol.ess for one pulse of the Between

t.r tablet erased, new writing about to begin"(p.SO). They await the

inscriptlon of the noumenon¡ But the 'rinner word[ forms one untt in a

complex semlotic system that 1s unl-fied by resemblqnces, or significant

analogiesr which can be valldated by a sacred pretext. The noumenon

isolates, through the paranoid constructlon of seLf. Such a construction

we have seen in The Crylns of Lot 49 where several characters employ,

peranoLa tautologfcally, to poslt the self as the centsr of a meaning-

system which refers dlrectly to that seÌf. It ls in the absence of some

external eource that vslidates the conJunctlon of seLf and meanlng,

some aLternatfve mechanism slgnifying the same meaning-system, that the

tauto1ogyexists.In@thepresenoeofseveralquest1.ng

heroes contrlbutes to a sense of this valtdity, by creatlng the impllca-

tlon that the Flrm -'rThem" - exfsts not as the proJection of a

subJective neurosfs but as an obJectfve reall-ty.

Well. lllhat happens when paranold meets paranold?

A crosslng of sollpslsns. C1ear1y. The two

patterns create a thlrd (...) (p.395).

This, however, obfuscates the quest for a redeeming construction

of the'rSystem". For ff "Theytr exist obJectively, then the questing

self is a product of TheLr corrupt and corrupting hermeneutic. The

ambLguous status of Tyrone Slothrop as a potentÍaL 'tsaviourr exempllfies

thls ambivalence. Even Slothroprs spirltual "guardian', Roland Feldspatht

is unprepared for hl-s electLon.

Ro1and shÍvers, Is thls the one? Thls? to be

figurehead for the latest passage? 0h dear. God

have mercyt what storms, what monsters of the

Aether could this Stothrop ever charm away for

anyone? (p.238].

However, Slothrop does possess an lnherlted propensity to seek hidden

orders; he has been made vulnerable to presences I1ke these "monsters

sf the Aether" by both hJ-s personaL and cultural history. The legacy of

his Puritan ancestry 5.s an lnherlted paranoia, which finds expresslon

in hls tendency to transforrn the world into text and to read from it.tl-ondon the secular clty instructs hl-m; turn any corner and he can find

himself lnslde s parable"(R.25). What he reads in the city subJect to

bombardment by German V-2 rockets 1s a parable of death. Under the

pressure exerted by the Bl1tz his latent paranoLa blossoms along wlth

"a pecullar senslttvity to what is revealed in the sky"fp.26)¡ so that

his paranold perceptlon centers on en obsession wlth 'rthe idea of a

rocket wlth his name wrltten on 1t"[p.25). Perhaps a pun on the Purl-tan

concept of npredestlnationtr, nonetheless his sensl.tivity to secular

exploslons Ls cast in the terms of dtvLne revelatlon. Like the Northern

Lights, the rockets 'rscared the shlt out of him"3

- 1n the skv rl-ght now here ls the same unfoldfngt

Just about to break through, his face deepeníng

wlth lts light, everythLng about to rush away

and he to lose himself, Just as hls countryside

has ever proclalmed ... slender church steeples

poJ.sed up and down all these autumn hllIsf-des,

whLte nockets about to flre, only seconds of

countdown âway, rose windows taking Sunday llght,

elevatfng and washfng the faces above the pulpits

defJ-ning grace, swearing thls fs how it does

haooen - yes the brisht hand reachins out of the

cLoud. aa¡ (p.29).4

Oedipa was "spooked" by such promises of hierophany - the act of

manifestation of the sacred - Slothrop's response is "a sneaky hardon

stirring, ready to Jurnp"(p.26),

Also lfke Oedipa, SLothrop is one who l-s "alienated tn analogy".

He Ls sensitive to hidden meanÍng in words such as tpredestl-nationt -the lÍnguLstfc aspect of his quest 1s in fact motivated by "blackwordsrr:

the Schwarzknabe seeklng the Schwat=gr"åt - and he 1s responsive to a

Iatent slmllltude between sJ.gns. For if church steeples are like

rocketsr then perhaps rockets possess an obscure reLigfous signlflcance,

perhaps they too point towards salvatlon. The direction of Slothropts

quest Ls towards dlscoverlng the hldden tenor of these potentJ-al1y

metaphortc vehlcles, towards readlng the .latent dLscourse of rrthB Same'l

whLch would draw them into a continutty of hlerophany.

However, the Purltan lnherLtance whlch sults Slothrop to the

quest aleo constltutes a broader cultural hlstory that the narrative

gradually elaborates as the conceptual antecedent and basis of the

FLrm's operatlons. A dlvinely-ordalned Etect has been supplanted by the

corporate rChosen": Vanftas - V. - takes the place of the $lord in a

commerce-centæd quasl-figural system. So young men stlll are "initlated

at Harvard into the Puritan Mysteries (. . . ) to respect and to act always

in the name of yanltas, Emptiness, thei-r ru1er..."(pp26?-68). Among

them Slothrop discovers that "Harvardrs there for other reasons. The

'educatingr part of it 1s Just sort of a front"(p.193)¡ he finds that a

sinlster order now lurks beyond the secular. But the extent to which he

has been determlned by ThËlr doctrine of Vanitas ls open to doubtt a

doubt located in Slothropts resldual symbolic awareness. Withln the

slgns that surround hlm, 1t ls the trace of an extra-creational presence

that trscares the shit out of him'r ¡ Slothrop fears the rocket strlkes as

he fears belng smltten by the apocalyptLc Word: "the one Word that nlps

apart the day"(p.25), The Purltan hermeneutic, Ín contrast, is based

upon an essentially metaphorlc epistemology. Nature is construed as a

sfgn-system that only indlcates, can only poJ-nt to, the presence of the

deity. ft ls a text of extrinslc value as a referential medium¡ lacki-ng

the intrLnsic slgnificance of the symboL.5 OnO from this denial of

sacred inÞlorlty - the theomorph - follows the recognition of Emptiness

or !4!!g. For if the Ínterpretative assumptÍon of Presence is with-

drawn, then the referential ft¡nctlon of a nature-text collapses Ínto

Absence and non-meaning; it assurnes the status of a phenomenal tautology,

Historl-cally, the Slothrops appear to have been reluctant to

surrender thl-s referentLal awareness. 'rHeretical" Wllliam Slothrop had

advocated a place and signiflcance wlthin the providential scheme for

the "Preteriter', those "passed over" by Godi later "Slothrop-Begulators"

slded with the rebels agaLnst the Feder"ii"t=, wearlng sprlgs of hemlock

rather than rtatters of white paper." Ln thel.r hats as tokens of this

cholce.

They were sttll for the llvlng green agalnst the

dead whlte. Later they lost, or traded away

knowledge of whLch side theyrd been on.

Tyrone here has lnherited most of their bland

ignorance on the subJect [p.268).

ft is from this "bland ignorance" of the very existence of tsides ft

that the lncorporation of the Slothrops, into the Flrm, seems to

follow. Yet lt is not a particularly successful merger for them; the

famlly survives but does not prosper and ls subsequently loeated on the

perfphery of the Elect, Without power or ilmoney in the Puritan sense -

an outward and visible O.K. on thelr lntentl-ons"(p.652) - tne Slothrops

ever threaten to collapse into the Preterite. And Tyrone is "Last of

.. his line, and how far-faIlen - no other Sl-othrop ever fel-t such fear ln

the presence of Commerce"[p.569). Hi-s response may be fear, but his

sensitivlty to the oresence of ttCommercet' , just as he is sensitive to

assumed presences 1n all signs, þ his usefulness to the Fírm. "ïhere

Ls 1n hls historyl and likely, God helþ him, in hls dossier, a peculiar

sensl-tfvity to what is revealed in the sky"(p.26).

The Flrm Ls not identlfied by the narratl-ve wlth any specificity,

as a noumenon 1t ls manifest in its representatives: Lazlo Jamf, the

meta-carte1s, Bllcero and, lnltial-Iy, PISCES (PsycnoS,ogJ-ca1- fnteLligence

Schemes to Expadlte Surrender) whlch is housed by 'rThe White Vlsltation"n

And it is to the attentLon of The White Visltatlon that Slbthroprs

peculiar hermeneutLc capablllty is flrst brought. Their lnterest focuses

upon hls reLatLon to the V-2 rocket, partlcularly the fsomorphic rela-.

tl-on between Roger Mexico's statistical map of'rocket strlkes on London

and the topography of Slothroprs sexual expÌoÍts. Attempts to dlscover

the slgnJ-flcance of thls co-LncLdence reveal a numben of cognltf-ve

approaches to the probl,em of expllcating hldden meanlng. Thl-s comes

down to the question of deaÌ1ng with metaphorlc ambJ.gulty. SLothrop

himself transforms the rocket's approach Lnto a kind of tmetafore-playr,

perceivlng fn it the trace of something to which he responds sexuaÌly.

Subsequently, the sclentists, psychologlsts and spirltualists of The

White VÍsltatlon construct thls response as a metaphor¡ the vfsible

sign of a "mystery stlmulus'r which ls variously diagnosed as precogni-

tion¡ "a statistlcal oddf-tyr', psychokinesLs, eveñ a psychotl-c misogyny.

The PavLovian behavÍourlst, Pointsman, however specülates in terms of a

purely materlaltst cause to explaln the effect, a cause which would

attach to the mechanícs of the rocket. Pointsman's experimental work

centers on the search for a rational mèchanlsm that determines the

relatlon between the cortex and the wor1d, vlewed as discrete areas of

"Inside'r and 'r0utslde". This is more than hls work, it is his mfssÍont

a mlssion that he conceives of with urgency¡ to determine the mechanics

of the brain and so expand the dominion of controL.

Slothrop's case though appears to undermine the set of symmetries

upon whlch PoÍntsman's theorising is based. The supersonic V-2 to whlch

he responds impacts before the sound of its approach-is heard and the

rocket strike, thJ-s supposed stlmulus, is preceded by Slothropts sexual

response - tThe mean lag is ebout 4$ days"(p.86). "fdeas of the opposite"

are certaJ-n1y confused. Confronted with thLs apparent subversion,

Pointsman becomes obsessed with a need to prove the PavLovlan concept

of the "ultraparadoxical phaser' - whereln a negative stimulus produces

a paradoxical response - and to l-dentify precisely the nature of the

rocket-stimulus.

- damn lt, what cue, right in front of our eyes,

that we haven't the subtlety of heart to see?,..

(...) When we ffnd lt, we'lI have shown agal-n the

stone determinacy of everythlng, of every ssul.

There w111 be precíous little room for any hope

at all. You can see how important a discovery like

that would be [P.86).

Pol-ntsmanrs philosophy a]-lows no place for indeterminacy or for hidden

meaning either. All must have a discoverable cause, function and signif-

icance, clearly wrltten on the cortex(t) in "a mosaic of tiny onfoff

elements"(p,55), a text whtch 1s made legible by reference to "The

Book" - Pavl-ovts letters to Plerre Janet.

It ls this interpretative authority - the Pavlovlan pretext -

that slothrop threatens; ln response, Polntsman determínes to send

slothrop',transmarglnal-" and ultl-mately'rultraparadoxlcal". He

transforms Slothrop himself ínto a cryptogram, in such a way that

Ppintsmanrs he¡rneneutlc quest provides an external motivation for the

allegorlc quest. Initíal]y, this quest is circumscrlbed by Them, and is

manipulated to serve more than one of Thelr purposes. Pointsman finances

his personal plot by enlistlng the aid of C}ive Mossmoon and ICÏt thus

lncorporattng it into the larger political eontext - the lnternationaL

post-liTar scramble for German rocket technoÌogy. Relylng upon Slothropts

wAsP-reflex horror of all things black - exemplifled by his nightmare-

vision of a descent tnto the tollet, a Journey that reveaLs his cultural

phobias of defecetion, death, blacks and buggery - They send hlm into

the Zone to locate and destroy the Schwarzkommando rocket pro$Famr

Slothrop is ,'a good try at a moderate solutio¡"(p.615). Therefore, the

common denominator underlytng these various aspects of the quest is the

self whLch has been determlned, to a conslderable extent, by cultural

and famlly hlstory. "Shltr money and the Word, the three American

truths, powerlng the Amerlcan mobiltty, clatmed the Slothrtpst clasped

them for good to the country.s fate"(p.2g). Llke the elements of any

tdeology, these three "truthso operate subllmlnal]y¡ they may be

lnscrlbed upon the ego of Tyrone Slothrop, oonditlonlng hls responses

and hls hermeneutlc, but he remalns unconsclous of them.

That is, untll he is mysteriously deprived of his identification

papers, the written validation of his consclous self, and ís obliged to

seek redefinitlon. Then, these determining forces take on the appearance

of a conspiracy and hLs identity that of a text written by Them. Made

vul-nerable by the suspl-ciously controlled circt¡nstances in which he is

litera1ly strlpped - his clothes, papers, friends a1I dÍsappear -

Slothrop beglns to perceive a slnister dimension of meaning in otherwise

commonplace signs. So fihe paraphenalla of the Casino He¡mann Goering

assume an additional signification.

These are no longer qulte outward and vlsible signs

of a gama of chance. There is another enterprise

here, more real than that, less merciful, and

systematically hidden from the llkes of SlothropIp.202).

Thls Ís, obvlously, a figural mode of perception - signs are displaced

from their conventlonal signifying relationships to encompass an altern*

atlve, metaphoric, reference. Close1y allied to paranofa, postmodernist

figuralJ-sm reveals an oml-nous secular design which contains the poten-

tlal for a satanic analogue. And it ls in terms of this quasÍ-figural

system - "an order whose presence among the ordinary debris of waking

he has only lately begun to suspect"(p.2OZ) - that Slothr-op seeks his

identlty. The speculatlve presence of this alternative ftorder of beingr'

1s augmented to some degree by 'rProverbs .for ParanoÍds'rr5:

Paranol-ds are not paranoids (...) because theyrre

paranold, but because they keep putting themselves,

fucklng ldiots, dellberately into paranoid

sltuations (p .292).

In these situations, such as Slothrop's at the Gasino, signs or flgurae¡flndrr them, pointing to the exlstence of a plot3 'titrs a plot it's a

plot 1tIs Pavlovian condl-tionLns!l! (p.294) .

Yet the traces of the 'tPresence', that Slothrop is begÍnning to

percelve are ctist not in the terms of a secuLar manufactured force but

ln satanl-c terrns, those of rthe Beasti. He fs

Worrled, all right. By the Jaws and teeth of some

Creature, sorne Presence so Large that nobody else

can see 1t (,..J. WeII, Slothrop can feel this

beast in the sky! its vlslble claws and scales are

being mistaken for clouds and other plausibilitles

r r r or else everyone has agreed to call them other

names when Slothrcip is listenlng. r.. (p.2AIJ.

Sensitized to the ldea of polyvalent meantng, the notion that mundane

signs may be put to extra-mundane uses and so signify a kind of

transcendental slgnifler at work Ln events, Slothrop pursues the meaning

of "Impol€X-G'. His confrontation with this cryptogram is prefaced by a

recollectlon of earlier slothrops, who read the world as ',Data behind

which alwaysr nearer or farther, was the numlnous certalnty of God'

(p.2A2). The reassertlon of thls ancestral memory lndicates that Tyrone

seeks not the numÍnous but the noLrnenonr forces dffferent fn nature but

of the same ontological status. Certainly he anticfpates an explanatlon

of rmpolex-G that wlll exeeed lts runction fn a German parts l1st¡

"Scal-es and claws, and footfalls no one else seems to hear. r.. .,(p.ZAZ).

These expectatLons are further exclted not by Impo1ex.G however,

but by his investlgation of its creator, Lazro Jamf, and a relationbetween Jamf and his self. By taklng advantage of the post-War lnforrna-

tion market slothrop is able to obtaln a copy of the sandoz fftes, the

text of Jamffs dealings wlth the chemfcal cartels. Perched atop Jamf's

crypt in Zurich, Slothrop attempts to de-crypt Jamf. "There's no visit.

It seems Jamf 1s only dead"(p.268). fnstead he decodes his own psycho-

bLography, written in the papers. He reads - what The Whlte Visitation

has known all along - hfs 1-dentlty as "Baby Tyrone", the subJect of

Jamf's Harvard experiments In conditioned response, The "mystery

stfmulusil to whích he was conditloned ls defined now, emerging syncretlc-

aì.ly frorn thls cLuster of colncidences, a tangle of textual referehcEsr

Fear and dread overwhelm hlm,

He ls also getting a hardon, for no lmmedlate

reason. And there's that smell agaln, a smell

from before hLs consclous memory. beglns, a soft

and chemical sme11, threatening, haunting (.,.)

he knows that what's haunting him now wLIl pr€ve

to be the smell of Impolex-G (pp.2851286).

And his erect response to the stlmulus 1s identifled as a metaphor, "a

colsnlgl outpost (.., I representing Their whl-te Metropolis far away"

(p,285). However, the extent to which the representational function of

the slgn disrupts an otherwise synon)ñnous relatlonshf-p, whereln Slothrop

and Them are one, 1s ambJ.guouse Stothrop reacts to the knowledge that

he has been coopted into the Firm with horror: ,'frve been sold, Jesus

Chrtst lrve been sold to fG Farben 1lke a side of beef'r(p.ZB6). But the

posslbllfty of a complete, deffnltive, ldlntification between hlmseLf

and Them is posed unconscÍously, ln a reourring nlghtmare - readlng in

a dLctlonary the word "JAMF", the ,,deflnLtlon would read; I. He woke

begging It !g"(p.28?). The degree of Their control of hls ldentity,

Thel.r deftnltlon of hlm, therefore becomes a prì.mary obJect of the quest,

one closely aIÌted to the search for the Schwarzgeråt.

Thls alliance between Slothrop, Impolex-G and the Schwarzgeråt

introduces him to the rconnectednessi that characterizes the floumenoñ¡

Faced with the possibillty that hls personality may have been syn-

thesized, I1ke the molecules of Impolex-G, stlll Slothrop does not

realize'rhow molecular is the nature of words'. He does not recognize

ln hls code name, trschwarzknabe'r, or that of his father, 'rschwarzvater",

a controlled predÍsposition to seek "black", specifically the "black-

lnstrument'r, the Schwa"=gu"åt. Both Tchl.tcherlne and Enzlan w111 wonder

at Slothropts involvement with blackwords, but he hlmself does not.

Perhaps this is an aspect of Slothrop's general obtuseness when it

comes to percelving plots other than that centerlng on his self. For he

is, essentially, an explicit case of a more pervaslve program of cul-

tural conditionlng. I'Plrate{ Prentlce possesses the self-awareness to

know that 'rLike every young man growing up in Eng1and, he was condi,

tioned to get a hardon in the presence of certain fetishes, and then

condltioned to feel shame about his new reflexes"[0.221. slothrop's

conditl-oning ls so expllclt as to approach the parodic. But, set 1n the

context of scientiflc experlmentation, it is indlcatlve of Thetr corruÈ

tion of psychology, partlcuLarry, by putting it to an insulative use:

to manlpulate certain responses and inhlbit others. Slothrop seems to

undermfne thls system; he 1s a product of ltr yet his response to the

rocket lntroduces an'uncertainty which necessarlly ls located beyond

its scope. The uncertalnty that he represents leads Pointsman to

perceÍve hl-m as "physiologlcally, historJ_call_y, a monsteril.

lle must never lose control. The thought of hfm

lost ln the world of men, after the war, fiLls

me wLth a deep dread f cannot extJ-nguish. ..r (p.144).

Jamf!s manfpulatlon of Baby Tyrone is symptomatic of Thelr drLve towards

stable, controllabl-e meanlng-systems. The deterrnination of behavlour,

of the psyche, forrns only one aspect of the noumenon, a "Faustian"

proJect to'redeem'nature by recreating reallty in Thel-r image so that

thefr "tiny desperate fraction (keeps) showfng a profit"(p.412).

Uenf pJffer - alone of those who do not belong to Them - l-ntuits

thf-s deslgn; in the attempt to articulate 1t she casts it in terms of

a metaphor: Pluto "the new planet", named for the god of the infernal

regions.

It is the grJ-m phoenix whlch creates its own

holocaust ¡.. dellberate resurrectlon. Staged.

Under control. No grace, no lnterventions by

God. Some are calllng 1t the planet of Natl-onal

Socialism (...). They donrt know they are telling

the M4!-!¡gth. ... (p.415).

Llke V.r It - Them - is a design revealed ln historfcal events, manifest

in hermeneutÍc modes. Jamfrs lnvolvement in thls deslgn extends beyond

hls work ln behavloural psychology and lnto cheml-stry. He was among the

first to read 1n the pol.ymer "en announcement of Flastlcity's central

canon: that chemlsts rvere no longer to be at the mercy of Nature"(p.249);

when t¡:anslated l-nto 'rPlastlcltyrs vlrtuous trladil of physical prop-

erties "ôften these were taken for NazJ. graffltl"(p.250). It ls in

plasticity that the orlgln of the cartels - of the noumenon 1n fact -1s located. Kekulé's dream of "the Great Serpent holdlng lts own tail

in lts mouthil provides not only a vlsLon of the structure of the benzene

molecule and the text for a new aromatlc chemJ-stry, but the grounds for

'rnew methods of synthesls"(p.412) and TheLr characteristlc method of

interpretatlon¡ rtThe Serpent that Bnnounces 'The World ls a closed

thJ-ng, cyclJ.cal, resonant, eternally-returnlng'r, is to be dellvered

into a system whose only aim is to vlolate the Cycle. Taking and not

glvlng back (..,)"(p.412). They construct the Serpent not even as a

parable of rtrOnce, only Once...'One of Their favorite slogans. No

return, no salvation, no Cycle"(p.413). Rather, they take the image and

reduce l-t, endowing 1t with a narrow secul-ar meaning whlch inhibits its

range of sl-gniflcatlon.

No: what the Serpent means Ls - howrs this - that

the sLx carbon atoms of benzene are in fact

curled around into a closed rlng, Just lÍke that

snake wlth lts tail in its mouth , GET rT? (p.413J.

Havlng reduced the question of eternal return, 'rthe Cycleit, to an

irrelevance, the Dream l-s relnterpreted as an inJunetlon to synthesise,

to control by every means, to stage a "dell-berate resurrection". The

interpretatlve center of the ntextt is shifted so that the Serpent

enters "our ruinous garden, already too fouledn too crowded to qualify

as any locus of innocence (...) not to destroy but to define to us the

loss of (..,) the Serpent whispered, 'They can be chanqed. and new

molecules assembled from the debrLs of the gLvenr((p.413), The new Eden

is not to be a redeemed, newly returned, ,'J"ocus of innocence'r but e

rationalLzed provfnce of absolute control over whlch "Anarysls" - the

latest manlfestatlon of Original Sln - presldes,

The benzene rfng, lfke that of the Nlbelungen, fs taken, interp-

neted awayr from the world and coopted, ,**r ,roahrop, tnto the system.

And lt fs used systematfcally to deny the cycllcal continuum slgnifled

by the serpent. As rmporex-G the rlng is synthes{sed into a plastlo

that imitates nature, an lmftatlon which includes however a cruclaL

modiflcation of the tfallen' original - 1t 1s controLlable, Jamfrs

rrPecullar Polymer'r, agaln l-1ke Slothrop, is erectile but in response to

an electronic stimulus. The stimull can be applled 1n one of three ways:

through a surface matrix of wlres; by a beam-scannlng system directed

at "grids and modulation plates" Iocated on or beneath the surface,

'rdown at the lnterface wlth llrhat lies just beneath [...) the Region of

Lhcertainty"(p?00); or by the proJectÍon of an electronic image

'ranalogous to a motlon picturen[p.?00). Thus constructed, Irnpolex-G

approxlmates.the Pavlovlan rrmosalc" cortex 3 the lnteractlon of "Inside"

and 'f0utslde" is encoded in its "tiny onfoff elements"(0.55), predeternr

ined by "grlds and moduLation pl-ates". The plastlc, from this perspec-

tlver realizes Pavlov's ideel of "the true mechanlcal explanatlon"; ft

provldes the model for 'ra pure physiological basls for the life of the

psyche. No effect wlthout cause, and a clear traln of linkages"(p.89).

It 1s through the narrative of Franz påtfer that Slothrop encoun-

ters a comesponding susceptibtlity to el-ectronic lmages or motion

pictures 1n the human psyche. Accustomed to constructing a continuity

from a succession of stlll frames both by hls habít of dozing at the

cinema and by the "da1Iy rushes" at Nordhausen - the photographed A3

rocket launches - påfler ts 'rglven proof that these techniques had been

extended past tmages on f1-1m, to human 11ves"(p. o?). He is bound to

the rocket prograrn by Thelr rþromlser of his daughterrs annual vl-sl-ts.

At Least a chlld ls sent to him each year. The possibil-ity that each

chlld ls dffferent haunts hlm, but from these successive appearances he

must construct a continuous ldentity, read fn each of her images those

slgns of a slngle hietory whlch constltute a dtgcourse of "the Same".

. Of al] Thelr constructlons, fllm "pproacf¡"s

most nearly the desigrn

of the noumenon. Fl,lm 1s created as a contLnuous, secondary image ofnreallty'r, lt relfles a "deIÍberate resurrectfon'r of nature which, like

Impolex-G and the Pavlovian cortex, 1s amenabl.e to I'Analysis,r, Bi.¡t fllm

surpasses the plætlcf s abIllty to lnltate the I'epf-dermali' properties

of nature ln lts capacity to "counterfeLt movement"(p,4O?), And it fs

from thLs capabllity that the insldíous quality of flIm proceeds.

Because lt can construct an emplrlcally accurate representatton of

realJ.ty film fs able, to an extent, to obscure its status as a proJected

rather than perceÍved 1mage,6 Tni. is partlcularly the case wlth movie

conventlons which, tn Bravltyrs Rainbow, are to be found equally in the

texts of film and nature: only when employed in an incongruous context

do they announce thelr artffice. So when Slothrop alds ln the rescue of

a smaLl girl from the rubble of a ruined bomb shelter, "her first words

werB tany gum, chum?t" and his cinematic expectatfons are fulfll-led ln

her faint smlle, "wow, a Shirley Temple smlì.e, as if this exaotly

cancelled aIJ- they'd found her down in the middle of"(p.24), But he

himself 1s not lmmune to the occaslonal compulsion to lntonate l1ke

Shirley Templ-e' 'rOh my goo'ness', Slothrop keeps saying, his voice out

of his oontrol, It sure Ís embarrasslng"(p.493). Again his compulsion

intenslfles a cultural deterrnination, one whÍch origlnates 1n fiÌm.

Der Sprlnger, as the megitnmaniacal movle director Gerhardt vonll

GoII, prophesles a future in which the scope of this determinj.st cinema

w111 be completed. To Slothroprs panÍc-induced insistence upon a

distinctlon between fllm and actualtty - ',Springer, this aln,t the

fuckinr qovies now" - he responds:

Not yet. Maybe not quite yet, Yourd better enJoy

it while you can. Someday, when the film is fast

enough, the equlpment pocket-slze and burdenless

and sellLng at peoplers prices, the llghts and

booms no longer necessaryr !@, ¡ r thêh. r r (p. S2?) .

von GoLr con-fuses reallty and fllm lmagery in thls phenomenon of

control. The discovery of Herero rocket troops "leadf-ng real, para-

clnematLc lives"(p.388J 1n the Zone cornes upon him with the force of a

revelatlon; sollpslstJ-cal1y, he construes them as the determined

reffectr brought into belng by his movle of a mythLcal Schwarzkommando.

Hls film-centered discourse imposes a cognltive texture whlch insulates

hl-m from alternative lnterpretatlons of reallty: the director ls

controlÌed by his movles Just as are his audiences. The corruption of

fictional modes so that they disrupt rather than reveal accesses to

reallty is not restricted to film; Polntsmants ilworldr 1s deterrnl-ned by

"The Book" while KatJe, Gottfried and Blicero l-ive a fairytalt - &gg4

and Gretel, The 1egend f-s adopted as a cognitive barrier, a source of

I'absolutesil thaü defÍne thelr ldentitl-es and which becomes 'rtheir

preserving routlne, their shelter, against what outside none of them

can bear - the War, the absolute rule of chance, thelr own pitiable

contingency here, ln its midst. ..!"(p.96)" It is ageinst this "absolute

rule of chance'r that Thelr corrupt hermeneutic forms are designed to

protect. But they protect through insulatlon, and sd prevent knorvledge

of signs from the sky.' ¡r¡*¡ner they are fatal or revelatoryr whether they

signify redemptlon or death.

ft Ís to fllm spec1fically, however, that the deflnition of

Slothruprs identity Ís linked¡ again vía the medium of Lazlo Jamf. IG

Farben, the cartel that owned "a11 lnterest in Schwarzknabe enterprise"

(p.286) before Lt was sold to the precursor company of Psychocheml-e AG,

used as an outlet Spottbillfgfllm AG fn Berlin, whl-ch organlzation sold

at a cut rate f1l-m stock to Berhardt von eåf:., partlcularly'tEmulslon J"

invented by Lazlo Jamf. The property peculiar to Emulslon J is lts

capacity to 'frender the human skin t"".,splrent to a depth of half a

millimeter, reveallng the face Just beneath the surface"(p.38?). So Lt

enhances the fllm's ablLlty to present an accurate Lrnage of human

reality and also creates the potentlal for a manlpuLatlon of faclal

skin color. Janf's lnvolvement 1n Thelr enterprise ls therefore

comprehensive: rangfng from the determlnatlon of behavlour. to the

epldermalr the paracinematic and, through the drug "Onelrine", into the

reaf.m of "tLme-modulatlon"(p.389). These obJects of control intersect

wlth Stothrop's quest through the A4 rocket. The reversal enacted by

the supersonl-c mLssile ls Likened by Pointsman to "A piece of time

neatry snLpped out... a few feet of fllm run backwards"[o.a8); the

heterodoxy of the rocket, and of slothrop's response to it, should

therefore be llabIe not only to control but to analysis.

The nexus of fiLm, the rocketrs parabollc trajectory and analysis

emBrges in terms of the mathematics of calculus. CÍnematlc reallty is

more anenable than is fnatureü to the dls-integratlve approach of

calculus; a f'counterfeited movementil relfied ln cellulofd 1s easl-Iy

"run backwardsrr, "snipped*, broken up and reorganf-zed. Firm is vur-

nerable to "the German mania for name-giving, dividing the Greation

finer and finer, anaryzing, setting namer more hopelessry apart from

named"[p.3911. But the analytf.c process of "setting namer (,..'l apart

from named'r lràs a slgnificance more sinlster than those of alienation

and control-. The division of a movement into its component units or

'fsegments of responslblllty"(p.¿sgJ is the hermeneutic technieue that

underlLes Thelr 'rorder of Analysl-s and Death. What ft could not use, itktLLed or al-tered,,(p.?221. Analysis ls TheLr method of alter:ing or re-constructÍng what They cannot use, reinterpreting and incorporating lt

lnto a secondary reaIlty. - the noumenon - a meaning-system that 1s more

easLly controLled. Roger Mexico, the young statlstlcian whose pr-oximity

to uncertalnty and probablLities alienates him from the cause-end-effect

model of scfentlfJ.c enquLry, at least fnfifaffy cannot perceJ.ve thisfnsidlous desfgn and so critfcizes Polntsman's determlnist quest forabsolutes as futlle.

I wonder 1f you peopLe arenrt a blt too -strong, on the vfrtues of analysls. I mean,

once you've taken lt all apart, fine, I'11 be

the first to applaud your industry. But other

than a l-ot of blts and pieces lylng about, what

have g sald? (p.8e).

What They have to say about the "bits and pfeces lylng about" ls largely

irrelevant; 1t is what They then do wlth the pleces that is of the

essence. And what They do is to reconstruct them as the component parts

of rta rather strfctly defÍned, cl-lnicaL verslon of truthr'(p.2?2),

Just as language, history - every epistemological mode - cooper-

ates wfthin the figural design of the nu¡minous, so these modes, once

corrupted by Them, conspire to pruduce this "versl-on of truth" as the

central signlfien of the noumenon. Epistemology is corupted as it

becomes lnsulatJ-ve, produci.ng metaphors that dlsguise and obscure rather

than reveal. ff the actlvity of the noumenon was to be described in

terms of the V.-dÍsease discussed earl-ler, it would emerge as

.. r a particularly unattractlve and discouragingly

common affllctlon called tunnel vision ,.. TunneL

vision l"s a dlsease in whlch perception is

restricted'by lgnorance and dlstorted by vested

lnterest. Tunnel vislon is caused by an optlc

fungus that multfplles when the brain Ls Less

energetlc than the ego. ft ls compllcatedl by

Bxposure to polltJ.cs.?

The system of the noumenon constltutes a culture in whLch this "fungus'r

proli.ferates and from which lt spreads. Symptomattcally reveaLed ln a

corrupt hermeneutlc based on analysis and controÌ, Their purpose ls to

constraln the "Preterite'r to I "tunnel vislon" through lgnorance or lack

of communlcatlon that serves Their lnterest, vested ln their "tiny

desperate fractlon" of the world. The $/ar represents a convergence of

atÌ Their icartel-izedr forces of rationalfzatton and determinism and so,

as a crisl-s in the progress of this disease, is a discLosure of the

noumenon.

The nerrator fs prompted to a lengthy medltation upon the dlvisfve

effect of TheÍr War and Thelr metaphysic by the realization of human

communlty at Adverìt - a phenomenon so contrery to and yet apparentLy

Llke Their deslgn.

The War, the Empfre, wl-1-1 expedite (t..) barrlers

between our lLves. The Slar needs to dfvide Ín

thls way¡ and to subdlvJ-de, though its propaganda

will always stress unlty, a11iance, pulling

together. The SJar does not appear to want a folk

consciousness, not even of the sort the GerÌnans

heve engineered, ein Votk ein flnr"r - l-t wants a

machine of many separate parts¡ not oneness but a

complexi-ty. . r o Yet who can presume to say g!g!

the Túar wants, so vast and aloof ts ít rr¡ so

absentee (pp.130-31:).

This "complexlty*, thls "machlne'r,1s remlnlscent of the Scurvhamlte

constructlon of Creatl-on as 'ra va6t, fntricate, machine'r, in þQry;þgof Lot 49. But fn the corruption of such Purltan hermeneutics, the "wÍIL

of God, lts prlme mover'r(p.1f6) has been supplanted by Them: the "bllnd,

souLl-ess (...) opposLte Princlple"(p.116) has assumed dominatLon of the

whole. Enblematlzlng thls Principle Ls the Ular which bears only nsome

crueL, accÍdental nesemblance to l-ffe"(p.131). There is nothlng acclden-

ta1 however Ín Thelr desl-gn¡ whlch wi1l not tolerate the concept of

accídent' The Warrs resemblance to 1lfe, 11ke Thelr propaganda, facil-

ltates the substitutlon of a dlscourse about or constructlon of reality

- the "deliberate resurrection" - for reality by dlsguj-sing the nature

of Their proJect. "Don't forget the reel business of the lÍar 1s buying

and sellJ-ng. fDeatn) serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real

movements of the War"[p.1OS). As a rcartel-Greation- comes into belng,

even the polltlcs that exacerbate tunnel vlslon consplre l-n an elaborate

dance of disguise which obliquely slgnifles an 'rabsentee'r intention.

Consequently, thls system - the "complexlty" of the noumenon in opposi-

tton to the rroneness'r of the numfnous - can reveal to the allegoric

hero not the presence of tTruthr but instead an I'Absencen"

The difficulty of discovering even this¡of the ñoLmêFroFI¡.ls appar-

ent Ín Their corruptlon of epÍstemologlcal forms - the constructs

through whlch the hero could know Their ontology. Like V. and the

Tristero¡ oñ€ of Their characterfstics is the dlsruption of cognitive

accesses to Them: the hero can only 'ltlckle IfneirJ creatures"(p.23?).

The secularizatlon of Kekulérs Serpent ls paradlgmetlc of thls redefinl-

tion within all meanlng-systems. Concornitant with 'tthe grim rationaliza-

tl-on ofl the tïorld"(R.see) ls the deniaL of all supra-secular signff-

l-cance. fn his tnLtlation to the Masons LyIe Bland discovers this,

largely because he ls a 'ithrowback"¡ one who Ls stlll sensitive to the

þresence of latent magic. A sort of Nefastian "sensJ-tive'r, he has some-

how escaped the ratlonall-zJ-ng process whereby "Business of a1l klnds,

over the centurles¡ had atrophled certain sense-receptors and areas of

the human bralnl,(p.sBgJ. slmilarly, trre deef-mutes encountered by Oedlpa

Maas possess an [extra sense atrophled in herself"(p.9?)1 B capaclty to

respond to some quasl--Platonic order of reality,

Ït ls 1n this notLon of "magic" that a dlstlnction between the

texts of the numlnous and the noumenon Ls losated. Each ls dfsclosed fn

a pseudo/flgural system, but only the numlnous can signlfy the supra-

natural.

Each plot carries lts own signature. Some are

Godrs, some masquerade as Godrs. This is a very

advanced klnd of forgery. But stlIl there's the

same meanness and mortellty to tt as a falsely

made check. It fs only more complex. The members

have names, Ilke the Archangels. More or less

common, humanly-given names whose security can

be brokenr añd the names learned, But those names

are not magic. That's the key, that's the

dffference. Spoken aloud, even with the purest

magical intentionr @ (p.464).

Apparentl-y it is to magJ-c of this kind that Slothrop responds as he

Éxepctseg., a residual 'rsubtlety of heart"(p.86) or unatrophied sense-

recËptor. Although the quest dl-scovers his defined role ln Their conspi-

racyr he still reads thls plot in terms of hís interiority context I the

seLf whlch has been determlned by Them. Bound by rhist assumptions about

the nature of Their design and obsessed with hts self, he does not

recognlze that tt Ls to a'rmagÍcal intentlon" that he is reeponsíve:

*that hls conditlonlng has gLven him special powers of responding not to

the rocket sound but to mysterious precursors of its arrival . r r (")

capaclty to read slgns about the intent of the heavens ,.. "8

Itllthln thLe context the rocket assumes an lconographlcaf signif-

icance. Llke all- fLgurae, the rocket ls a sign of an extra-creational

preeence and is valorized for the sacred signlficancê whLch thus

attaches to 1t. All of the maJor questers seek the Rocket 00000 as angrail-texti: a trTexttr that deciphers and dlscloses the nOthert (aIlos).

Tchftcherine would read in lt the locatlon of his half-brother Enzlan,

the 'alter'-ego he f-s compelled to destroy; Enzlan seeks the route to

an alternative Zone, a numl-nous "Eternal Center"; and Slothrop, of

course, is searchlng for the trace of his true, immanent se1f. But these

questers are aII'compromJ-sed - thelr quest for the Other 1s bound up

with thelr involvement in nThlsü, Them. And so ls the Rocket. It ls an

amblvalent figura¡ as the product of Thel-r technology, of Their death-

dealing, it reifles the deslre to rrchuck a ton of Amatol 3OO miles and

blow up a block full of civlll-ans"(p.S21). Yet the Rocket Ls more than

a unLt in Their design: Lts construction appears to resist the

constraints imposed by Their secularizing hermeneutic - the attempt to

de-sign - and incorporates into its sernantic polyvalence a numinous

ire-slgn-ation "

This resignetl-on or reinscrlptlon of the numinous upon a ra-

tionallzed world takes the phenomenal form of uncertainty, "slngularity"¡irrationallty - all those qualities antonymous to Their absolutes.

"f think of the A4rtr sez he (tnanatzl¡ ,,as a

baby Jesus, wtth endless commlttees of Herods

out to destroy it in l-nfancy [...J it rea1ly did

possess a Max Weber charlsma .,. some JoyFul -and deeply imatfonal - force the State

bureaucracy could never routinlze, agalnst which

l-t could not prevall r., they dld resist lt, but

they also allowed lt to happen (.,.1" (p.464J.

Here, Thanatz could weII be describfng the historical process whereby

the alLegor1c pretext has been devalued. The Rocket ls constructed es a

text by the characters withln the narratlve and aLso by the narratlve

itself - the rhetorloal gap between the two lmplyfng a characterlsticpretextual- pol)rya1ence, that quallty of ambiguity whlch necessLtates

such lnterpretatJ-ons as the allegorLc narratlve. Úrltke tradLtl-onal

pretexts, the Rocket does not embody a culturally accepted visuallzation

of the sacred but it does rel-fy the traces of a latent numlnous whlch

may signlfy salvatlon. Thus, Gravltyrs Rainbow does not rel y upon a

single anterlor sacred text but incorporates a pretextual history in

the Rocket. Like Jesus - the archetypal pretext - the phenomenal Rocket

is a product of the exlsting System, but its charisr¡atlc slgnificance

points to both the corrupt, epostatical, nature of Them and to a poten-

tial means of escape. The two realms of being are drawn together in the

flgurally-based pun. Achtfaden, the aerodynamics man, makes this disco-

very in the terms of hls own, mechanlcal meaning-system.

"{!gÐ . r r AtîlBñ . r r ñot only to breathet but also

the soul, the breath of God .¡.rr (...l "The Rocket

creating its own great wind ... no wind wÍthout

bothr Rocket and atmosphere ... but lnside the

venturi, breath - furlous and blazing breath -

always at the same unchanglng speed (,..J"

Glbberish. 0r else a @ that Achtfaden isntt

equLpped to master, a transcendent puzzle that

could lead him to some moment of light .r. (p'4541.

It is this impllcation of something tother-wordl-y¡(sic) tn tne

Bocket that They are compelLed to "routlnize" and that Slothrop appears

to read. His response fs enlgmatic simply because ft menlfests a resÍd-

ual pretextual awareness wlthln a system that denies pretextual slg-'

nlfying forms. Il n'y a pas de hors texte, but there has been more tha'n

one hand at work 1n the iwrltlngt of Tyrone Slothrop: something ilextrafl

to Thelr codifÍed Text. There 1s, for instance, "the hand of Providence'!

- loosely ldentlfLed wtth Thefr Purltan origlns - whlch 'rcreeps among

the stars, glving Slothrop the flnger"(p.461). Alternatively, the

providential tTord has been llkened to "white rockets about to fire",

the potentlal- flgurae of 'rother orders of belng'r, 1n slothroprs figural

imagination. The pretextual functfon of the Rocket is to reveal anal-

ogiesr such as thls, whJ-ch have been obscured by the noumenon; Sl-othropb

function as anì alLegoric hero fs to expllcate them. l-{bwever, his access

to information about the Rocket Ís uncertain. The Ml-ttelwerke he knows,

but Íin the way you know someone l-s there" (p.299): through a paranotd

lntuítion. And the resignj.flcatLon of the double integral sign - so

centraL to ascertalnLng the figural status of the Rocket - is described

ln the interpolated narratl-ve of Etzer örscn, slothroprs cognitive

relatlon to whlch is hlghly ambl.guous. Agaln there is a rhetorical-

alienatfon of narrative from character, hera indÍcatlve of the narrowed

scope of Slothrop's quest. The signs of a numinous text are assembled

in terms of him but the final constructfon lnto Text is a task shared

by the narrator gnd reader and performed in the cognitive spaces that

punctuate the herofs quest.

The transcendental signJ-fler upon which such a Text would center

1s derived fnom the polyvalent double lntegral or more partÍcularly ltss5-gnlficance withtn'the dynamJ.c space of the livfng Rocket"(p.30r).as

"the method of fJ-ndtng hidden centers, lnertias unknown",

(. .. ) a point 1n space., a point hung preclse as

the polnt where burnlng must end, never launched,

never to fa1l. And what Ls the spectfic shape whose

center of gravlty fs the Bbennecnluss Polnt? Donrt

Jump at an infl.nite number of posslbl-e shapes.

There's only one. ft is most llkely an lnterface

between one order of thlngs and another [p.302).

At Brennschluss Polnt the Rocket ftgurally discÌoses an acultural,

ahLstorical absolute that ls synonymous with "iheartI, 'p3-exus',

tconscLousnesst (tfre volce speaklng here grows more J-runJ-c, closer to

tears as the list goes on) 'sanctuaryr, rdream of motionr, 'cyst of the

eternal presentr or rGravltyrs gray emlnence among the council"s of the

livlng stone"t(p.302), The speaking voÍce asserts a valorlzed presence

- the center of a panthefstlc continuum - that exists ln the detritus

of rrsome corrupted ldea of rClvíIlzation"' and "a corrupted idea of

rthe Peoplet"(p.3O2): the analytic categories of Elect and Preterite

uponwhichTheyoperate.I@thenarratorerticu1atesthls

dlchotomy between the noumenon and the traces of the numinous; the

dÍssocLation of "orders of being'r is enacted ln the utterancet

If the Brennschluss Point ís an Ínterface located ln this disso-

cLatl-onr then so too are the Rocket that discloses it and Slothrop who

tries to decipher 1t. An lnterpretatlve lexicon however must be

constructed and from the echos of such narratorÍal ironies. But Slothrop

is slothful; hLs only resource is "lnstlnctual¡ paranoia. So his capa-

city, as a semantl-c "lnterfacerr, to translate "other ordersrr into

meaning as he transcrlbes rnystfcal precursors of the Rocketrs arrival

into an obtruslve slgn 1s cornpromlsed. He may have the hermeneutic

potentl-al to provide the terrns of salvatlon, but thelsol-dcontext of

hls readLng fs his interlorlty context. fn the absence of an ilLronlcr

narrator:ial perspective, Slothroprs dlscoverles may l-nstead provlde the

basfs for Thelr ratlonallzatLon of the Rocketrs "singularlty". By

translatlng the Rocketts mystery into the analyzable form of a text, he

may yet be further coopted fnto the System.

Slothrop himself falls to dlstlnguish between kinds of Presence.

Parano{ar whlch once revealed a Puritan God, whlch even now discloses

traces of the numlnous, ls predomlnantly centered upon Them; the cartel

which ls the textual source of Slothropts absent se1f. Gonsequently,

the quest becomes an obsesslon with thls tabula rasa, expressed 1n the

search for a Word that wl-Il center the free play of signifiers that are

Slothropts interLority context. He confuses the figural slgniflcance of

the iRocket-as-apocalyptlc-Vlordt wl-th the pseudo-flgural organization

of Thelr lcomupted ldea of 'GÍvillzatlon't'- "the chaln-]-lnk f1elds of

the Word, shlnfng, runnJ-ng secure [.. . ) always tanglble,,(p.?O5). For

the paranold Slothrop, alLenated in analogy and readlng solely ln'terrns

of a conspl-ratorlal context, "a11 slgns resemble each other, all resem-

brances have the value of slgns".9 so a tïord l-s a $Jord 1s a llord: he

makes no dfstinctlon betweenr their respectlve transcendentaL signifiers

or tndeed any Judgement of value. Hl-s response to revelation - of the

numLnous and the noúnenon equally - ls fear. And whlle the signs around

him assembÌe themselves lnto a consplratorial structure, thl-s fear

increasingly fnhlbits his reading. Afrald that They wÍll coopt hlmn he

sfmply opts out of his readerÌy role.

He gets back to the Caslno just as big globular

raindrops, thlck as honey, begln to sptat gfant

asterLsks on the pavement, invltJ-ng hlm to look

down at the bottom of the text of the day, where

footnotes wÍII explaln all. He Ísnrt about to

look. Nobody ever sald a day has to be Juggled

lnto any klnd of sense at day.s end. HÞ Just runs[P ' 204) .

But as the cartel, figurally discrosed to him at the caslno, assumes

the stature of nthe Beastt he forgets his earlLer díslnclinatLon to

seek hidden meanÍng. Hlerophany, mysterlous intfmatlons of a crypto-

morphr ñscares the shLt out of himÍ yet hls attitude to the l'ordert'

that ls revealed l-s ambivalent.

Although the lntruslon of an extracreatl-onal presence Ls feared,

he alsor deslres the Word that would deflne hls lmmanent ldentlty. This

duality is emblemetized when, responding to his first figural epiphany,

Itè steps back out, backward out the door, as if

half, hls ventral half, were being struck in

ktngly radlance; retreatlng from yet faclng the

Presence feared and wanteU (p.ZO3).

Thelr motl-vatÍon of his quest fs made posslble by the external manipula-

tlon of thls sublimlnal desire, the "sub-Slothrop needs They know about,

and he doesn't"(p.490). Late in the quest Sl-othrop asks hÍmse1f "What

dó I need that badlv?',[p.490). But it is @ Late; the free play of his

Ipsycho-sf-gniflersr has advanced to an uncontrolled dlsintegratlon. So

it remains for Bbdlne, addresslng a SÌothropean fragment, to identify

thls "something else, Something f must've needed (...) tnat Slry."(p.?AL). Slothrop needs the iOtherr as he rneedsr personal grace: the

knowledge of self whlch ls defined in terms of some external system of

control and connectlon. Hls tabula rasa self requires the p:oJected or

tnscribed slgnlflcance that orfginates 1n a providential scheme,- of

either the numl-nous or the noumenon. And to this extent he 1s a wÍlllng

member of the Firm. Llke Jessl-ca Swanlake his need for securlty, for

shelter agaf-nst "the absolute rule of chance"(p.96), is exploited by

So hls quest for the Rocket and lts Schwarzgeråt not only serves

Them but praserves Slothrop, for a tlme, agelnst dantf--paranola, where

nothlng ls connected to anythlng, a cOnUttlon not many of us can bear

for very Longrr(p.Ag ). It Ls hLs ,holyì prfnclple, a structuring

routlnei rrhe 1s one of the Falthful (..,) Pilgrfms along the roads of

mlracle, every blt and plece a sacred reI1c, every scrap of manual a

verse of Scrlpture"(p.391). St{ll, hls paranoLa does lnduce a suspicion

of the dual nature of hls search, of the antithetlcal'Wordd he 1s

pursulng.

Slothroprs dr.rmb fdling heart sez: The Schwar=g""åt

fs no Grall¡ Ace, thatrs not what the G in Impolex-

G stands for. And you are no knlghtly hero. The

best you can compare wLth ls Tannhåuser, the Singing

Nlncompoop (..,) But what you've done is put your-

self on somebody elsers voyage (...) playlng her,

ltsr gtame ..t you know that tn some lrreducÍbIe way

ltrs an evll game. You play because you have nothing

better to do, but that doesnrt make it rtght. And

where fs the Pope whose staff 1s gonna bloom for you?(P

' 364) '

Despite this self-consclous hesitatÍon, Slothrup does persÍst wlth Their

game - untíI he simply forgets about it. He scans over this apprehen-

siveness and makes no attempt to elaborate his suspicions or to

understand the tmplications of hls quest, fn short, he lgnores the need

for an lntenpretative methodoLogy.

Hi-s symbolLc perceptton dLscloses the presence of both the nr"m-

fnous and the noumenon in secular signs and his pretextual awareness

identlfies the Rocket as a prlmary.flqura, yet he constructs no defini-

tlons in order to lndex thefr slgnlflcances. The lack of discriminatlon

whlch characterl-zes hl-s approach fs located in "a fallure of perception,

orr Ln a more slnister sens€, of wlI1 (you used to know what these

words mean) t'(p.4?2). We knew what these tlrrns meant as the constltuents

of the Augustlnlan 'rLnner word"3 e ütheogram'or spfrituar "shit-detectorù. sl-othroprs wlì-l falls ln, the pursuit of understanding; he

slothfully avoLds deveLoplng a perceptlon of the respective values of

slgns. As we have seen, Flerbert Stencll understands the slgnf-flcance ofV.rs semioiic system but lacks the wlll to articulate lt; Oedipa

llterally possesses the wlll to pursue hidden meanlng but her access to

understanding ls lrredeemably and metaphyslcally disrupted; Slothrop

faLl-s on both counts. l'{ê l-s too ,,far-fallen'r too compromised by Them,

to threaten by questloning the order that Lnscrlbes hlm with meanlng.

consequentry, he fairs at "Ho1-y-Genter-Approachlng (whioh) issoon to be the number one Zonal_ pastlme. (...) nnd tankers the likes ofNårrtscn and slothrop here wltl have already been weeded out,,(p.sOgJ.

His earLier approach to the rRocket-centerr, his descent l_nto the

Mlttelwerke, was accompanled by "a terrlble famillarityrt signifylng ,,8

center he has been skirting, avoldlng as long as he canìremember"[p.3lZ).

As all extraneous 'rfaces and facts'r, rrcamouflage and distractlonr,, fallaway Slothrop refuses to confront the epiphanlc moment. lle defers

revelatÍon by secularÍzing "the vaLn and bllnd tugging at his Gleeve,r,

choosing to call it other names - 'rit's only wind, only g-1oads"(p.srz).By the tLme he reaches Test Stand Vff this deferment is spontañEouso

So here passes for him one more negligence ., ¡ and

llkewise groweth hls preteritlon sur€¡ .rr There

1s no good reason to hope for any turn, any

surprlse l-see-lt, not from Slothrop. (...J ER.rt ohn

Egg the flytng Rocket hatched from, navel of the

S0-meter radlo sky, al1 oroper ghosts of place -forglve hlm hls numbness, hls gl_ozing neutrallty.(... ) Forglve him as ¡æu forgave Tchitcherlne atthe Klrghtz Llght (p.S10ì.

slothrop's nPreteritLon'grows as he ceases to percelve the slgns ofelectton - of both the E1ect and hls own herolc role - in pnoportion tothe thlnnlng of hls trpersonal densÍ-ty". Even the vacui-ty of his linner

word* l"s no longer a cogent Bpace as hls signfflers rtscatter.. So he is

lncapable of makÍng a flgural correspondence between a personal theogrøn

and the 'rEgg the flying Rocþet hatched froml.

By lnvoking the Test Stand thus the narratl-ve designatàs it as a

hieroglyphfc, a ffgura of the Egyptlan transcendental signlffer Arnmon-

the llvlng creator of the life of the world

cane out of an egg; the sun, then, was at first

carrled ln an eggshell which explains a number of

Anmon-Rats characteristlcs: he is also a bird, a

falcon r r r But ln his capacity as orlgin of

everythlng, A,mmon-Ra ls also the origLn of the

egg. FlÞ fs deslgnated sometlmes as the sun-bird

born from the prlmal egg, sornetimes as the

originary bird, cerrier of the first egg.10

Could it also be that Anmon-Ra is a mechanlcal bird (of prey) - a

Rocket? 0r ls he simply revealed through the Rocket? This anbf-gulty is

characterlstlc of all flgurae. Gertainly¡ BS creÉrtor and productr sig-

nlfler and slgnlfled, of the "orLgfnary', Egg he approxlmates the fgggg,

the atemporal absolute that J-s independent of cause-and-effect cat-

egorles, So Anmon-Ra subverts the questf.on of the ¡Rocket and the Egg",

the "loglcalr chronologfcal, or ontologlcal prlorlty of the cauae over

the effect',.Ìl

Inr hLs 'rglozing neutrall,ty'r Slothro.p reads none of these connota-

tlons; ln hls pretertte'rtunnel- vislon'r he ls, rlke Tchltcherlne, an,

unwlttlng agent of Them. Btrt Slothroprs laziness¡ that whlch makes hlm

an allegorlcaLly LlLiterate reader, aÌso makes of hlm ar¡ Lneffectual

agent, Elècause he 1s unabre to fulfil rheir quest, They eventually

release hLm from their collecttve wflls; he is dLvorced from Thefr p1-ot.

Tchltcherlne, however, is l-nvolved wlth Them to a greater and more

explicitly s1-nlster extent. He participates in Thelr corruption -insulatlon - of language; the very basfs of all those forms of semanttc

devaluatlon prevJ.ously outllned. The "dellberate resurrectlon" of lang-

uage prúvldes the methodologlcal model for Their 'rde-slgn-atlonF of al-l

sfgn-systems. They explolt the capaclty of words to produce a corrup-

tlon of understanding and, by extensJ.on, of socl.ety, in a postmodernl-st

parallelr to, LangÌandrs Lady Meed. The cognitive nexus of language, the

ego and society Ls revealed to Slothrop by the }f-nguist Sir Stephen

Dodson-Truck as he explafns the df-fference between the Eothlc and the

Old Nòrse runes that slgnify-,"sun". A broken lfne, substltuting the

earlier clrcle, ildates from a tLme of dlscontlnulties, tribal

fragnentf.ng perhaps, allenatlon - whatever's analogous, ln a social

senser to the development of an independent ego by the very young chffdr'

(p.206J. The fragmentation of a hollstlc sensibility, of the 'rcircular't

worS-dr as 1t fs de-signated Ln words - llteralized or alphebetlzed - is

the process ln whlch Tchitcherine participates.

An fmmedlate result of the ll-teracy he helps to develop ls that

On sidewelks and walls the very fl-rst prlnted slogans

start to show up, the flrst GentraL Asfarn fuck you

si.gns, the flrst k111-the-polJ-ce-commlss:loner sJ-gns

(and somebody does! this alphabet is reall¡r,something!)

and so the magfc that the shamans, out ln the wJ.nd,

have always known, beglns to operate now in a

politlcal way (pp.35$-56).

Cast Ln the analyzable forrn of J-anguage, the shamanrs rmagLc* 1s chann-

eled into a poLltlol.zed'ftunnel vJ-sfon"; the orâL communlcatLon of a

pantheLstf-cr hoLlstlc apprehenslon ls dtsrrrpted and thls contfnulty

obscured. LÍstenLng to "an aJyts'r - a trlbal slnglng-duel - TchÍtcherlre

realizes that "soon someone will come out and begin to write some of

these down l-n the New Turklc Alphabet he helped to frame .., and this

1s how they wl1l be lost"(p.35?). And those "sense-receotors, vulnerable

to the spontaneous rpresencer of rneaning or "magÍc" will atrophy

through dlsuse. But thfs understandlng does not deter him frorn his

immedLate mlsslon, to transcrLbe the I'KJ-rghiz Light" - Just as Slothrop

was sent fnto the Zone to lfterallze the Bocf,et's maglcal singularlty.

nAre you goJ-ng to get it alL?i asks Dzaqyp Qu1an.

tIn stenography¡i repltes Tchl-tcherine (p"35?).

A pun on "get'r - to record and to understand - suggests that

Tohitcherlne wlIl hav€r a ltmited success, He wl-11 record the Aqynts

song of the Kirghtz Light but, ironicalì-y, the mediumr in which he

f-nterprets lt wllt dfsrupt his cognitl-ve access to 1t. For Their words

and the Khghfz Llght are of lncompatible ontologf.es.

If words were known and spoken

ïhen the God mlght be a gold lkon¡

Or a page ln a paper book.

BUt ft comes as the Kirghiz Light -There ls no other way to know ft (p .358) .

Ïhe l{èw Turkic Alphabet and the Kfrghlz Ltght are elements of differentsemLotic systemst the Ki-rghlz Light ".n O" apprehended only through anr

"lmmaculate perceptlonr'¡ whl-Ie Tchltsherine 1s toor Lnvolved in the

epf.stemology of wrltlng to really F,seei the Ltght - ,,He wfll see It

Just before dawn. (...) But someday,(...) he w111 hardly. be able to

nelnernber ft"(p. 3Sg).12

Thelr language Ls constructed so as to obscure and deny presences

Ilke the Klrghlz Llght, Kekul6rs Serpent, Slothroprs 'monsters of the

Aether". Late ln the narratlve the young wltch GeLl Trlpping achleves,

through her occult "maglc'r, a vislon of the world as a Pan-thel-stl-c

presencei frToo vlolently pitched aLfve 1n constant flow ever to be seen'

by men dlrectly, They are meant only to look at Ít deadr ln stlll

stratal transputrefled to o11 or coal. Allve, it was a threat"[p.?20).

The llvtng world wlth'ta Soul l-n ev'ry stonerr(p.?60), a contingent and

lndeterminate world, contradfcts Their absolutlst ldeology. Therefore

1t must be trkLlled'r or lts slgniflcance altered, deLiberatel.y r€deemed"

The earth becomes a statlc, inanlmate system and the ilTitansrr - rrwind

gods, hllltop gods, sunset gods' - 'are all the presences we are not

supposed to be seeing"(p.?20). As sclence reconstructs natune¡ and f1lm,

psychology, methematLcs nevLse our perceptlon of J-t¡ so too' words are

nresurrected'r from the pantheistLc contlnulty.

See; how they are taken out from the coarse flow -

shaped, cleaned, recttfied, Just as you once

redeemed your lettens from the lawlessr the mortal

streamlng of huran speech. ¡.. Th€ts€ are our letterst

our words: they too can be modulated, brokent

recoupled, redeflned, co-polymerized one to the

other (p,355).

llore so than any other cognttive mode Language acts as that Espect of

the noumenon whleh dlsrupts communicatlon, constructs the disorete cat-

egorles of Elect and Preterite, end bolsters TheLr fdeology: "a coop-

eratLve structure of Lies"(p.?28).

Ænong the most radlcal of Thelr Lies, posited by the narrator, 1s

the assunption that outer space ls a rVacuum'r rather than a medlt¡m or

'sonlferous Aether"(p.69?). The text of the noumenon lncludes no

vocabulary to describe such a medlum, no words to manifest an inter-

stelLar continulty, Thel-r dlscourse Ís lnstead prescrlptive, preaching

"sn isÌand of l1fe surrounded by a void (,..) not Just lhe Earth ln

space, but your own individual life fn time"(p.69?). Tchitcherine ls

drawn to the Rocket, as he was drawn to the Klrghiz Llght, by the

impllcatlon of something iOthern (allos) to thls text. The Rocket

emerges 'rout of the other sLlent world"(p.?26), the space that the

noumenon seeks to fl1l. And f.ts paraboll-c traJectory, analogous to a

vistble half of the cosmlc Serpent, J-s ornot, as we might imagine,

bounded below b¡rr the llne of the Earth ft 'rises fromr and the Earth it

'strl-kes'(...) It BegLns fnfinitely Below The Earth And Goes 0n'

Infinttely Back Into The Earth itrs only the pg! that we are allowed

to seen(p.?26). The parabolfc sLgn manf-fests the BbennschLuss Point,

the point where burnÍng must end, the center of gravity to which the

Bocket 1s drawn before it ls released Ínto "an uncontrolled exploslon...

thls Ìack of symmetry leads to specul-atlng that a

presence, analogous to the Aether, flows through

tfme as the Aether flows through space. The

assumptLon of a Vacuum ln tl-r¡e tended to cut us off

one from another. Rl¡t an Aether sea to bear us

world to world mlght brlng us back a contLnuity,

show us a kLnder unlverse¡ noFe easygoÍng (p.?26).

If the Flocket 1s and dLscloses an ínterface between 'rorders of being",

1t would be an Ínterface between 'vacuousi and naetherealn orders, kind

and exploLtattve worlds, controlLed and l-ndeterrnlnete texts, the

noumenon and the nurtnous. It would be the primary slgn of a reconstruc-

ted !999. gut as the flgura of both Texts it is avaflable to many

lnterpretatlons: ilthe Rocket has to be many thlngs, lt must answer to a

nunber of dlfferent shapes l-n the dreams of those who touch it ( . . . ) lt

must survive heresies shinlng, unconfoundable ... and heretics there

will be"(p.?2?). Their Éheretfcalr attempt to routlnLze or ide-sÍgnr

the Rocket's slgnificance can be resisted only through semantic poly-

valence, a pol¡nralence that answers to the lndete¡minate nature of

contemporary salvatlon.

The causes of rdamnatfon' cluster around the destructive potentlal

of the Rocket, "an evll Rocket for the Worldrs sufcid""(p.?2?), but by

incorporating the signs of past and present apostasy this historÍcal

fl.gura may elso slgnlfy a future salvation. This duallsm l-s refLected

in the Rocketrs ibltextuelltyr - its annexation by opposltlonal Texts -and is reifled in the dialectLcal play of forces that manlpulate l-ts

traJectory. Two centefs of gravity work upon the dynamJ.c Rocket; that

which is dlsclosed at the Brennschluss Polnt and the gravitatf.onal

force that origlnates 'rout of the other sll-ent worLd'r(p.?26). KatJe

recognises that as the Rocket submlts to the laws of balllstics 'Some-

thlng else has taken over. Somethlng beyond what was designed 1n"(p,223).

Although she seems to percei.ve snme extra-literal sÍgnifÍcance in the

si-gnr she fails to apprehend the dual tenors of the vehlcle, instead

reading "the great airless arc as a clear alluslon to secret lusts that

drfve the planet and herself and Those who use her"(p.223J. Rather than

refer to a 'transcendentali gravlty, thls trope sÍgnlfies that whioh

would be trqnscendEd - entropy. Webley SÍlvernail hints at this

J.nterpretation durJ-ng hls monologue to the anlmals caged at the lïhite

VlsLtatLon.

(.,,) lt lenrt free out here. All the anlmals, the

plants; the mlnerals, even other klnds of nen, are

belng broken and reassenbled every day, to preserve

an eLLte few (...J f canrt even hope that (...)

TheyrlL (... ) stop uslng every other form of life

without mercy to keep what haunts men down to a

tolerabl-e level (p.230 ) .

What haunts men ls entropy, the tendency to disorder and uncertainty

that They seek to counter with stabl-e, controllable meanÍng-systemst

through a rrdellberate resurrection" of entroplc trNeturer. Thls process

is imaged by the Fìocketrs parabola, the controlled ascent which Ís

'rbetrayedrr into an uncontroLl-ed exploslon. The Rocket is, as Enzian

learns, "an entfre system won, away from the femlnlne darknessr held

against the entropies of Ìovable but scatterbrained Mother Nature"Ip.324).

But Their attempts to counter entropy through technologloal orderlng -a klnd of Ëdemonic'r sorting - are uLtlmately entroplc. As Caltr1sto and

Stanley Koteks never reallse, the converslon of energy,that is this

work produces lnconvertlbl-e energy - waste.

So the FLrmrs fear of disorder and ¡deathr, whÍch would be over-

come through Thelr 'rorder of Analysls and Death"(O,?22) necessaril-y

creates the rfPreterite'r waste that They fear and hate. Thls "waste" is

ímaged, 1n Lts most fundamental form, by "shltn. A nu¡mber of comlc

scahilogfcaì- Lmages - the lntractable bowl that clings to Pointsman's

legr for ínstance - culmlnatlng in the "Tolletshipr', " a triumph of the

German manla for subdlvLding'r(p.448), provide a shlfti.ng narrative

focus for thls fear, It 1s dJ-agnosed finally, 1n linguistJ.c terms, as

the deflnltion of ÍShLtrn.ShLno1a,r.

Shltr now, ls the color whlte folks are afraid of.

Shlt ts the presence of death (...) the stlff and

rotttng corpse ltself lnsfde the whitemanrs warrr

and prLvate own g@þr whLch ls gettlng pretty

Íntfmafe. (...) Shoeshine boy Malcolm's in the

to1let slappl-n' on the Shfnola, wonklng off

whlteman's penance on hls sl-n of being born

the color of Shlt'nrshlnola (p.688).

In contrast is the col-or white, the whlte toiLet ls "the very emblem of

Odorless and Offlcla1 Death"(p.688), the color that permeates "the

tollet privacy of Their banks"(É.?41). ft ls also the shade of the

blank page that would precede the inscription of the noumenon.

Yet the cost of such institutlonal-lzed "bleachlng" is entropy:

the energy expended upon a system to brlng lt to a state of order and

to maintain 1t¡ a quantlty that increases wÍth time. So ll-ke V. and, to

a lesser extent, the Trlstero the norlmenon manÍfests hlstory Bs an

accumulatlon of detritus produced by the encroaching influence of

entropy. Not surprlsingly then the questlon arises3 are Theyr llke V,,

of an occult or even demonlc ontology? The shell--shocked victlms of the

"War" are dubbed "Lord of the Nlghtrs chlldren"[p.49J; thelr aílments

are I'AbreactÍons of the Lord of the Nlght"(p.48); the Whlte Visitatlorr,

employs Reverend Dr. PauI de la Nuit; and livfng wlthin the System is

likened to "rÍdlng acnoss the country Ln a bus driven by a maniac bent

on suLciden(p.4t2) where the dLord of the Night he Ls checking your

tlckets'r(p.afS). But whether the 'rLord of the Nf.ghtn is an,avatar of

Satar4 the PrÍnce of thls world, the Father of all Thelr Lies, Ls an

unanswered (unanswerable) questlon. Nevertheless, Thefr entropic en-

terprise could well lead to an apocalyptlc heat-death sf the unlverse

tf tt were not for the long-range orderlng lnfJ.uence of gravitatlon.

In the concept of gravity lles the posslbtllty of spontaneous

"resurrectlonn or cycÌlcal renewal. Thls force, cen@ 1n "the other

sllent worLd", draws the Rocket lnto I'the EÌllpse of LlTcertainty"(p.425)

where l-t su¡:renders the struggl.e against "Gravlty" and submLts in an

uncontrolled expl-oslon. It ls agatnst the transflgurative pressure of

"Gravlty'r that They must struggle; tt ls withln the context of rrEarthrs

mfndbody'r that the texts of the numinous and the nouflenon stage thelr

most radical- confrontatlon. LyIe Bland, through hÍs magical sensitivity,

discovers this

(...) that Gravlty, taken so for granted, ls

reaLì-y something eerie, ltessianic, extrasensory

to Earth's mLndbody ... havÍng hugged to its holy

center the wastes of dead spectes, gathered,

packed, transmuted, reaÌigned, and reyroven

molacules to be taken up agaln by the cealtar

Kabbalists of the other sÍde (p,590),

However the Firm, exempÌlfied by Blfcero who represents the System gone

pathologlcelr interprets this nature-text as a 'cycle of fnfection and

death"(p.?2A). Weissman-Bll-cero 1s possessed by a Romantic depair or

angstr a desire to dlsprove Wittgenstein's axior¡ ÉDl,e WeIt ist alles

was der FaII istr. And ln his deslre to transcend the limitations of

perceptlon (rlanguaget) he attempts to manfpu).ate transcendence, a

dellberate transcendence that is a corollary to ThdÍr "deLlberate

resurrectlon". Uslng Their means of control, partlcularly Rocket-

technology, he seeks 'rthe edge of the llorld. Finding that there is an

end"(p.?22).

The corrupt, entropic, nature of this search does infect Enzian.

As the protege of Blicero hLs early tnUenture to the Bocket is his

partieipatlon ln "the sl-nlster cryptography of naming,,(p.S2Z), Tne

connotatlons of a few key words appear to Enzj-an as elements of a patt-

ern or text that centens on the Rocket, So the signlficance of the

North as a mythical regton of death ls lntensffied by the presence of

the Rocketwor*s at Nordhauaen, a town adJacent to that of Bleicher{de.

Bleicheråde, 1n turn, evokes the German flgure of Death, Blicker, a

name almost homonynous with ElLcero - lIeÍssman. In thi-s llnguistic

texture Enzian reads a prophetic signiflcance.

There may be no gods, but there j-s a pattern:

names by themselves may have no magic, but the

g! of naming, the physlcal utterance, obeys

the pattern (p.322).

By referrring thi.s pattern to the Herero hJ.story of ,,Lost messages'r -originatf.ng when 'fthe sly hare who nests in the Mdon brought death

among men, Lnstead of the Moon's true messsg€rr[p.3ZZ) - Enzian

conslructs the Rocket as a potentlal access to Truth; "Perhaps the

Rocket 1s meant to take us there someday, and then the Moon will teII

us tts trr¡th at last"(p.3¡22). frThere', would be that which defines

Blicerors 'redge of the Worl-d'r, the "Othern that Enzlan terms ',the

Eternal Genterrr. Perhaps analogous to the rTnysticalo Brennscfù.¡ss Point,

the al-los would reveal not only a Herero destiny but also Enzianrs

personal identl_ty.

In this Enzian's quest paralì-els Slothroprs; he seeks in the

Rocket both personal and racLal deffnitlon but, llke Slothrop, his past

compnoml.ses his capaclty to dlscover fu1fllment. Both heroes desire

grace - deffnitl-on ln te¡ms of an external nplott - however both

confront-the dllemma of distlngulshlng iltruen salvatLon from the machlre-

tions of the noumenon. Whereas Slothroprs Purftan ancestry disrupts his

abillty to dlfferentiáte between quasl/flgural texts, the Herero tradi-

tion in whtch Enzl-an uneasiLy locates hÍmself affects hls conception otr

the mystJ-caì. goaì-. He is lnfluenced by a Herero herrneneutLc that, while

constructLng nature as a tcxt ln the manner of Purltanlsm, assumes thls

world-text to be of a synboLl-c or pantheistLc rather than metaphoric

character. As mentLoned above, Puritanism valorl-zes nature only as the

slgn of rsuper-natureË: because 1t has no Lntrl-nsic value as the l-ocus

of the }oqos_ lt ls vulnerable to Thelr exploitatl"ve practlces. This

essentiall-y mechanistfc hermeneutÍc opposes the holistlo, pantheistlc,

epl-stemology of the Hereros that constructs nature as a "sentient rockrr.

5o Ln Süawest a barren woman ls burled to her shoulders ln an aardvar{<-

hole t'to be ln touch wlth Earthrs gift for genesis"(p.316). Bùt ln the

Zone, where the Erdscnweinnånlers are I'Europeanized in language and

thought"(p.3I8), this cycllcal splrlt ls obscure and amblguous: "here

1n the Zone, lts reel status fs not so clear"(p.316). Consequently tt

polarizes the Schwarzkomrnando into two maJor factions; the Empty Ones

and the followens of Enzlan, "Revolutl,onarl-es of the Zero'r and seekers

of the Eternal Center.

They share the Schwarzkommando inslgnfa, the mandala that slg-

nifles an anterÍor trlbal holIsm, The four interdependent elements form

a unity l-n terms of the sacred center; '¡AI1 the s6ne here. Bf.rth, souÌ,

flret bullding. Mal-e and female, together. The four fins of the Rocket

made a cross, another nandalatr(p.563). The Bocket constitutes a Zona1

equlvalent of the old mystlcaL vocabul-ary. Bt¡t where Enzian lnterprets

the Rocket in transoendental terms as the vehicle for a tribal return

to the sacred üzonet, the Empty Ones "calculate no cycles, no returns,

they are 1n love wlth the glamour of a whol-e peoplets suicide"(p.31-8).

The Rocket - revelatory and apocalyptlc - f.s again coopted lnto opposi--

tional texts. Y€t both interpretations are based on the concept of

tribal unlty and the mandallc sfgn.

llhat Enzlan wants to create w111 have no hl-story.

ft w111 never need a desLgn ohange. Time, as time

is known to the other natlons, w111 wl-ther away

lnstde thl-s new one. The Erdscfiwetn¡råfrle wllL not

be bound, llke the Rocket, to time. The people

wfLL find the Center agaÍn, the Genter wlthout

tlme, the Journey wJ.thout hysteresls, where every

departure ls a return to the same pIace, the only

pì.ace. r.. 1.,.) The Eternal Center can easlly be

seen as the Fina1 Zero. Nåmes and methods may

varyr but the novement toward stillness 1è stilÌ

the same (p.319).

The 'tstlLlness" of an atemporal, ornnltemporal absolute is, from a tem-

ponal perspecttve, dlfflcult to distlngutsh from the stasls of death.

Ll-ke Stencil and 0edipa, Enzlan faces the problem of locatf"ng a four-

dC.menslona1 absol"ute from wlthtn the cognitive constraints of a three-

dLmensfonal world.

Howeverr the Rocket appears to dlsclose such an absolute and fts

fJ-gural status would seem to be valldated by lts mandallc form. Thts

apparent patternlng provides the basÍs for a mythology, a hybrid of the

European and Herero, despf-te the Schwarzkommandors alienatlon from both

cultures. tlyth 1s to be the route of ìreturn" and the Rocket 00001 ttsvehicle. By dupllcatJ.ng and nedeemlng the archetyp€ establlshed by

Blicerors Rocket 00000, EnzLan hopes to make manifest the sacred slg-

ntfying center whlch is the historical analogue of the 'rl-låuptstufe",

the core of'the mandalLc vÍIlage where were kept'rthe sacred cattle.

The souls of the ancestorst'(p.563). As a transcendental slgnlfÍer thls

Ls a definLng absolute ln terms of whlch rff tf,fngs cooperate as aspects

of a coherent semLoti.c system. Fron a temporal vantagg: the locus of the

transcendental appears as true I'lòrth. Slgns, Ínterpreted accordlng to

'rthe Logic of mandalqs'r point North - "Evl_denoe and intuttLon (..,)potnt to O00o¡ tnue North"(p.?07) - the locatLon of 'rThe Kf,rghlz LJ.ght.

The Hèrero country of death',(p,?06). Thts "mythlc-symmetrlc bearlng,' is

thus constructed as an tntersectlon wfth the Other. So the Rockett

travelling North, at the Eftsennscl-ùr¡ss Polnt, should in the terms of this

text reveal '¡the speclflc shape whose center of gravity is the

BþennschLuss Point" and by crosslng the 'rinterface between one order of

things and another"(p.3OZ), should take the Hereros out of sequential

tLme and lnto a tfmeless realm of absoLute reality.Sut the validity of this lnterpretatlon depends slmply upon

Enzlanf's capaclty to lnterpret and, gfven his invol"vement with Blicerot

thls is questionable. Hfs redemptfve enterprlse 1s the dupllcate of

Ellliceror's I'deliberate transcendence" - aLthough Enzian, seeks the

numÍnous he employs the trappings of the noumenor, - they dÍffer onI-y,1n

lntentÍon. And the purlty of Enzianrs lntentLon is ambiguous; hls

deflnitlon of both the Rocket and hlmself has been tainted by the lesson

taught by,EIlfcero, 'tthat by understandlng the Rocket, he woul-d come to

understand truly,his manhood"[p.324). As we have seen, the Rocket ls a

polyvalent sign partlcipatlng fn the texts of &he numlnous and the

noumenoñ¡ In the absence of a defining absolute such as Enzianr seeks

the dlstinction between the two ls unclear. I'ltÞ does substitute for Their

cognltlve mode of analysis a'statfstlcaL sensÍbflltyn tnat parallels

the uncertainty represented by the Rocket, but ln thls he simply

replaces BlLcero wlth the Rocket as a source of knowledge and provLden-

tta! sign.

Consequently, Enzlanrs quest intersects with Slothroprs: llke

Them Enzian requires an J.nterpreter, someone to deoJ,pher the Rocketrs

singularLty. Slothrop appears as one r"O.tr" qf transcrÍblng the

Rocketrs promJ-sed revelatlon Lnto tntellf-glble terms but he fails the

Schwarzkommando as he faLls Them. Instead, Slothropts pararroia inten-

sÍfLes Enzlan's own. The opposltlonal nature of Thelr relatfon to the

Schwarzkommando he already knows, but the nature of the opposJ-tlon fs

less cIear. He suspects that "ln fact J-t may be a gfant cartel lncLudlng

wLnnBrs and losers both, in an amlable agreement to share what is there

to be shaned"(0.s26). SttII Enzian does not realLze Their extent; he

imagines a clear-cut opposition whlch excludes the possLbility that he

is working withln "!@!¡ tlme, their space, and he sti1l expects,rt

neively, outcomas the whlte contfnuum gref,, past hoping for centurÍes

a9o"(p.326). Gonfronted wlth Slothrop, a nominal agent of Thern, he is

1ed'to confess to rtthe feeling that the occupylng Powers have Just

about reached agreement on a popular front against the Schwarzkommandot'

[n. sea).

Sensltlzed by Slothropts paranoÍd-figural- hermeneutic, that whLch

reveals ftscales and claws¡ añd footfaLls no one elae seBms to hear.t

{p.zaz) Ín commonpÌace sf-gns, Enzian finarry recognlzes that he has

been "seducedrr by the Bocket's textuall-ty away from the,'Heal rext',.But more than the Rocket 1tseIf, his past has compromised him, his Euro-

Herero assr.nnptlons about the slgniflcance of ,rthe pattern,r - the

'rsintster cryptography of nanlng'f - and the "Destlny" it appeared to

encode.

(...) all rlghtr say we .gg.supposed to be the

Kabballsts out here, say thatfs our real DestJ.ny, to

be the scholar-magf-clans of the Zone, wfth somewhere

in 1t a Text, to be plcked to pLeces¡ annotated,

expLlcated, and nasturbated ttII ttfs alL squeezed

Iimp of lts last drop.r¡ well we assumed - natür1ich! -that thls holy Text hed to be the Rockrt (...) our

Torah. ìIhat else? fts symmetrles, its latencies, the

cuteness of 1t enchanted and seduced us whlle the ReaI

Text persf.sted, somewhere else, in fts dar*ness, our

darkness .,. even thLs far from Süawest we are not to,

be spared the ancÍent tragedy of lost messa[les, a

curse that wlll never l-eave us. .r. (p,52I).

Enzl-anrs revelatLon is the dlscovery that he has mfstaken the true

nature of synthesis and control, the nature of Them and Their ranti-

entropicr enterprise. Thelr lnsulati.ve hermeneutic has seduced him from

the alternatl-ve Text, the one that may contaín "the Key" to salvation.

And so¡ as he contemplates adopting Slothroprs lnterpretative role as a

Destlny, he turns to 'rEarth's mindbody'r as the True Text.

We have to look for power sources here, and

dlstributlon netwoil<s we were never taught, routes

of power our teachers never imaglned, or were

Bncouraged to avoid (...) zeroing ln on what

lnca1culable plot? Up here, on the surfaceo coaltars,

hydrogenation, synthesis were always phony¡ dummy

functlons to hide the reel, the planetary misslon

yes perhaps centuries in the unrol-lfng ... thls

ruinous planet, walting for lts Kabball-sts and new

alchemists to discover the Key, teach the mysteries

to others ¡.¡ [p.521).

rrThe planetary misslon'r may be entropy - the force that govenns matter,

that therefore governs technology and consequently the carteÌs, Them -or Ít may be the spontaneous thor.rgh long-term ("centuries fn the

unroÌIlng") resurrectlon of natter through Gravfty, But these are not

dlscrete categorles; rather they are aspects of a single process that

defines as false, "phony, dunmy functlons*, Thelr modBs of s¡rthesis¡

In the ruins of the reflnery Enzlan reads the causes of rdamnatton',

of hl-s own preteritlon, clearly wrltten. ThLs text has been offered to

Slothrop several times. fn Zurlch, "The lÏar has been reconfiguring time

end space lnto lts own lmage (..,) to other purposes,

only (...) begln to feel the leading edges of"(p.25?).

his flgural eye upon Berlin -

It comes as the Revea1er. Showing that

can protect, never could - they are as

lntentlons he can

Later he turns

ff there is such a thing as the Glty Sacramental,

the clty as outward and vlsible slgn of l-nward and

spiritual 1IÌness or health¡ then there may have

been, even here, some continuJ.ty of sacrament,

through the terrl-ble surface of lúry (pß?2) -

but hJ-s ili, constructed by Themn w1IL aIlow no more than a perlpheral

questioning of these slgns. ft remains for Enzian to dlagnoqe the

spirituaL l-}Iness symptomatÍ,cal-ly manlfest on "Eafth's mindbody{ and to

articulate Thelr causal- lnvolvement. To do otherwise would define him

as one of the neunuchs keepLng the harem of our stolen Earth for the

nunb and joyless hardons of humarr, sultans, human ellte with no right åt

all to be where they are,'(0.52l).

The revelatLon of the noumenon is Enzian's epiphanic momentn The

dlscovery of the false system of control withln which he has been

worklngr par:ticuLarly the set of cognltlve controls falsely imposed by

Them, 1s the turning-poLnt and, in a sense, the cul-mLnation of his

quest. Beferring now to the text of a ruined world¡ rather than the

"sinister cr¡çtography of namJ.ng", EnzLan formulates an alternative

interpretatLon of the Rocket. Thls new constructlon does not excLude

the Rocketrs function as a figura: wftnin the terms of Enzlanrs ,'ReaI

Textrr lt discloses not the dlrection of salvation but the nature of the

false þ9..

no soclety

foolish as

shj-e1ds of paper. (...) trrey have lled to us. They

canrt keep us from dyf.ng, so They lie to us gbout

death. A cooperative structure of lies. (...) Before

the Bocket we went on belleving, because we wanted to.

But the Rocket can penetrate, from the skyr at any

glven polnt. Nowhere ls safe. We canrt beLieve Them

any more (p.?Zje-).

Withtn thfs context the Rocket ls an irruptlon of uncertainty into

Thelr closed and stable meaning-systems. Implled by íts semi-circular

traJectory fs the cyclical process of constructLon, destruction and

spontaneous resurrection that They attempt to supræs through an

J.mposed semanttc stasis¿ That this readlng becomes apparent to Enzlan

through a shift of interpretative perspective reveals both the arb-

itrary nature of Thelr constructlons and Their concomitant obscurlng of

alternative hermeneutfcs.

0n1y by questionf.ng the validity of lnherited assumptlons can the

Preterite e\ren suspect the exlstence of a Design lnto whÍch they have

been coopted. For the System operates through a singler autocratlc

hermeneutic mode, an approach to interpretatlon that paral"lels Their

Lie about death: the denial of Return in favor of the doctrine of

"Y.4!!g, Emptiness, thelr ru1er"(p.268).

Death has always been the source of Thefr powerr

[...J If we are here oncer only oncet then cLearJ.y

wer'-arB here to take what we can whlle we may. If

They have taken much more, and taken not only from

Earth but also frorn us - wellr whY begrudge Them,

when Theyrre Just as doomed to dle as tïe are? ['..)

But Ls that really true? Or ts Lt the bestr and the

ñost carefully propagated, of aLl Thel-r l-lest

known and unknown? (p.5S9).

The potentlaL falslty of Thelr concept of death ls the central recogni-

tl-on of the Preterite, motivatÍng the embr¡ronlc Gounterforce. It

reveals the posstbtltty that The y may not ln fact dJ-e, 'that the nournenon

is l,mmortal and that only the Preterlte are condemned to die in what

may be an endless cycle of senrftude. The apparently ÍndisoCninate

death-dealing of the Rocket, removed from the tnterpretative context of

Their Ldeol-ogy, becomes a control-Ied destruction; it lmplfes that the

operatfon of the noLflienon ls a conspiracy whÍch deffnes the Preterite

as mortal-, as úwaste:.

The story of Frans van der Groov, KatJe!s Calvinlst ancestor,

provides a parable of thls process. To the human E1ect the Mauritlan

dodoes appear I'f11-made to the point of SatanLc interventlon, so ugly

as to embody argrtrrnent against a God1y creation"(p.110). So Frans ls

obllged to erase this rrperverslonil from the provldential Text, to va1-

tdate the dDesignrr and to prevent "a second FLood¡ loosed thLs tlme not

by God but by the Enemy"(R.11O), As the Preterlte, the dodoes are doomed

to die accordLng to the terms of 'rwhat theLr round and flaxen invaders

were callf.ng Sal-vatlon"[p.110), Thls categorLzatlon was explicated by

Max Bp iÞlaan ln Glles Goat-Boyi ftherers got to be goats for the sheep

to drl.ve out, þ? ff they dontt fall- us they fail themselves, and then

nobody passes't. 13 Ho*e.ver, Their tsalvatlon'r has meanlng only within

the text of the noumenon. Withln the context of 'rEarthrs mLndbody,,, by

doomJ,ng the Preterite They doom themselves.

The System nay or may not understand that ftrs only

buylng time, And that tLne fs an artlflcial resouroe

to begin with, of no value to an¡rone or anythíng

but the System, which sooner or later must crash to

lts death, when l-ts eddiction to Energy has become

more than the rest of the World can supply (p.4ì.2).

fronicalLy the Deslgn that Frans kl-lls for, once adopted by Them as the

System that uses the Preterite as an lnfl-nite resouroe in the battle

agaínst entropy¡ lncreases the lfkLÍhood of a "Satanic'r apocalypse, a

heat-death for the universe.

But the Preterlte, constrained by an Ímposed "tunnel vision'r,

lacks the perspective of the narrator and can only suspect, paranoically,

the existence of an omnlpotent ñoufiênonr Tchitcherine ls warned by

Wlmper the rrIG Farben V-Mannrr, that "our Little chemÍcaL cartel is the

model for the very structure of nations"(p.349)" He recaLls thls advice

as the cartelsr involvement Ín the Zone becomes apparent to himn

reveallng in the surroundÍng debris the shape of rroperational deÊ.th[o

Oh, a State begins to take form fn the stateless

German nlght, a State that spans oceans and surface

politlcs, sovereign as the International or the

Church of Rome, and the Rocket 1s lts souL. fG

Raketen. (...) Tchltcherlne ls certaLn. I,lot so rnuch

on outward evldence he has found moving through the

Zone as out of a personal doom he carrles wlth hin -always to be held at the edges of revelations (p.566).

From this ml-nimal revelation of the noumenon TchitcherÍne realfzes the

participatlon of hl.s own Sovfet state. And he beglns to suspect that

the Harxlst dialectLcal lnterpretatlon of hlstory shares with the

Puritan basls of the capåtalLst carteÌs the same Ile about death.

History slmply supplants Provl-dence as a text of death, Agaln it ls

Wimpe who enlightens him: 'fReÌlglon was always about death' It was used

not as an opiate so much as a technlque (...), But ever slnce it became

impossible to die for death, we have a secular verslon - yours' Die to

help Hlstory grow to lts predestined shape"(p.?01). So he poses the

question that |s literally to haunt Tchitcherine; "if HLstoryrs changes

are l-nevitable, why not q! die?"(p.?01J.

Tchltcherj-ne fj,nds that he has been duped by Thelr concept of

death, that he has been allocated to the Preterite all along in his

wlLlingness to die. Exploitlng his suspl-clon that he has been "passed

overrr, They use his mlsguided personaì- interpretatlon of Enzlan as the

Other that has damned him so that he nay locate the Schwarzkonìrrìêñdoe

The mlstaken dfrectlon of his quest, like Enzlan's, is dÍrectly attrtb-

utable to Them. The dlfficul-ty of maklng accurate distinctions in the

Zone arlses from Their control of al-l lnformation.

Those llke Slòthrop, with the greatest interest ln

discoverl-ng the truth, were thrown back on dreams,

psychlc flashesr omensr cryptographiesr drug-

epistemologiesr all danclng on a ground of terrort

contradlctJ-on, absurdlty (p'582).

The noumenon operates through and so domlnates all rational cognltlve

modes; traces of the numlnous are manifest irratlonally but Ít ls only

by suspectlng Thelr opposite that the Preterite can know the hegemony

of Them. In fact lt ls whlIe under the thfluence. of the drug Oneirlnet

Itheophosphate (.. . ) l-ndtcùt the Presence of God" (p.?o2), that

Tchltcherlne ts granted a isecondary lllminatlonr', a paranoid vlslon

of the connectedness of Them. In the absenoe of coherent eplstemoLogf-ca1

prlnci.ples, this ls al-L that the postmodernist allegorl-c hero can

artLculate. The sl-gns of a false lgEr "not yet bllndingly One", the

epiphanic unlty indeflnltely deferred, l-ocate the hero - Tchitcherlne

and Enzian - on the edge of figuraÌ revelatlon. lThere the conventional

hero becomes ah,are of a providentlal scheme that has been deterrnÍning

hls identity aì-L along¡ the postmodernlst hero discovers that whlch

dlsrupts access to every form of knowledge . So 1n The Faerle Sueene

PrLnce Arthur ls able to read

The secret meaning of threternall mlght,

That rules mens wayesr and rules the thoughts of lluing wlght 14

TchÍtcherine and Enzian lnstead dlscover the System that controls the

categorLes of E1ect and Preterfter aîd whlch has asslgned to them damna-

tlon: cognf.tlve allenatlon and death.

fn contrast, Slothrop is marked as a member of the Elect from

bi¡th - because and Ín spite of his famllyrs peripheral social positlon.

However, hls gradual discovery of the lmpLÍcations of membershlp to the

Firmr and h1s reJectf-on of them, results in his growfng Preterltlon.

Franz påfler too reaches a polnt at which he reJects the noumenon and

"committed then hls act of courege. Hè quit the game'r(p.430). SÌothrop

simply refuses, ftna).Ìy, to f.nterpret, to perform the readerl-y role

required of him by Them. By decllning to play hls designated roLe as

escholar-magiclan of the Zonev, he reJects the identlty that They have

lnscrLbed upon hlm. 0r rather, 1n reJeotlng thls self he transforms hl-s

lnterpretative quest Lnto something extrlnsic and imposed; rlSlothropll

and the S-Gerat and the Jamf/lnpolex mystery have grown to be strangers"

(p. 3 J. But as he relinqulshes the Rooket-quest that has untll now

presenred the coherenoe of hJ.s ldentlty, another set of sLgns take the

place of Thelr consplracy as a definlng context. "Llke signals set out

for lost travelers, shapes keep repeatfng for hlm, Zonal shapes he wllL

alLow to enter but won't J.nterpret, not any more"(p.56?). An important

shift has occurred in the relation between Slothrop and his exteriority

context. No longer is his self constructed as an interlority context

rel-ative to the plot that implies and deterrnines lt; the categories of

rrlnsidet and {Outsidet have ceased to be relevant as these Zonal signs

begin to speak through him, as Slothroprs passlve subJectivity becomes

one aspect of a pervasive diecourse.

0ther ancestors, ancestors other than those of the Puritan

Establishment, assert themsel-ves. $lhen Slothrop retlres from hls

'rdetextivei work - the active seeking after the signs of an immanent

self - an alternative, numinous Text ls revealed through him. The

famillal antecedent to this alternatlve 1s recalled by the flgure of

'rheretlcaL{ WilLiam S}othrop, author of On Preterition. WiLliam's

heresy 1s hls love for the Preterlte. He "argued holiness for these

'rsecond Sheep'r, wÍthout whom theretd be no elect"(p.555). In so doing

he attempts to rewrite Thelr text of salvation, to break down the

hierarchy of death upon whJ-ch 1t ls based. Willlam ls motlvated by love

for his plgsr for a relatLon to "the Earth" which is excluded by Thefr

ideology. They appear not as "iIl-made to the point of Satanic

intervention',(p.110J to wllllam; from his perspectfve the preterite

pLgs ere 'rpossessed not by demons but by trust for men, which the men

kept betrayÍng r.. possessed by lnnocence they couldn't lose... by

falth ln llltlliam as another variety of plg, at horne with the Eartht

sharing the same glft of life. ..."(p.555). Where They designate all

llvlng things as doomed to dle an absolute death, Wllliam perceives a

dl-fferent unlty based on a shared 'rglft of llf"".

The memory of Will-lam Slothrop and his porcine heresy closely

precedes Tyroners appearance as Plechazunga, the Pf,g-hero. Earl1er,

Slothrop assurned the guise of an A4 rocket, as Rocketman, a persona

that relfied hls quest for deflnitlon through the Rocket. Conventional

allegoric heroes¡ Ets ìr€r have seen, encountered aspects of their psyches

rel-fied in personiflcatÍon ff.gures as they developed in the quest for

sel-f-knowledge. Slothroprs development is expressed l-n a form at once

more end less llteral. Hfs personae are less "letterali in the sense

that personlfLcatJ.on figures act out the slgnifylng range of a slngle

word or concept. Yet they are more llteraL as he embodies the text from

which he is seeking definitlon,

By adoptlng the ldentlty of Plechazunga, Slothrop begÍns to

surrender the ego that has been inscribed by Thern. Already this ego has

been fractured; They are manifest as traces of an absent self, leavlng

'rSlothropd an uncentered text. ThLs fragrnentatlon is most noticeable as

his lLnear memory dlslntegrates, along wlth his sense of "the one-u,ay

flow of European time,,(p.?ZA). Slothrop beglns to experience time as a

series of dl-screte moments, of 'rsuccessive stfllst', in the absence of a

coherÍngr subJectlve perspective. rn the terms of'rMondaugen's Law'l

this 'tantf.-paranoLa" ls the absence of a personal "grld".

Think of the egor'the seLf that suffers a personal

hlstory bound to tlme, as the grid. The deeper and

true Self is the flow between cathode and p1ate, The

constant, pure flow. Signals - sanse-data, feellngs,

memories reLocatlng - are put onto the grid, and

modulate the flow. Only at mor¡ents of great serenity

is lt posslbl-e to find the pure, the Ínformatlonless

state of slgnal zero (p.¿l0A).

slothrtp has dLscovered that "slgnals - sense-data, feeringa, memories

relocatlng -" can be deterrnined by Them and so the "flow'r of the ego

controLled. It fs possl-b1e that without hts "consclousness, that poor

crlpp1e, that deformed and doo¡ned thlng',(p.?20) - without hls medleting

ego-grid - Slothrop may real-Lze a numinous, 'rdeeper and true Self'r.

The function of the ego as an inscribed 'rinner word" witnin the

pseudo-flgural or¡ganlzatlon of the noumenon appears unambiguous to the

narratorS "The Man has a branch office in each of our brainsr his

corporate embl-em ls a whlte albatross, each loca1 rep has a cover known

as the Ego, and thelr mission in thls world is Bad Shlt"(pp.?12-13).

The Gounterforce is defeated by thls the extent of Ïheir control;

although rthey oppose the Ftrrn stllI they work from wlthln the pre-

deflned category of the Preterite: thelr opposltion has aLready been

accounted for. And they'rare as schl-zol,d, as double-rnlnded ln the

massive presence of money, as any of the rest of us"{p.?LZ). But

Slothrop eludes these categorles; by the tl-me the narrator can make

these clalms Slothrop ts "one plucked albatross. Pluckedr heIl -

stripped'r (p. ?r2) 'Released from the conspíratorla1 network that has constrained hlm'

alone wlth t'Earthrs mlndbody", he has 'rbêen changing, surer changing,

plucking the albatross of self now and then, idl-yr half-conscious as

picking his nose't(p.623). And as the mode of perception that cha-

racterlzes thfs self 1s forgotten, Slothrop reads from a Rilkean text.

And though Earthliness forget ¡rout

To the stilled Earth say: f flow.

To the rushfng water speak: I am. {p,624),

As "Earthlinpssrr - that whlch Ls of but is not "Earth", analogous to

Their "delfberate resurrectionn of Earth - forgets Slothrop, he Ls

assuned lnto an alternatlve text. Perhaps there he dLscovera a 'rdeeper

and true SeÌfrr, the "constant and pure flowrr of subJectivlty, as he

utters '¡f fIowil. Certainly at thls point he Ls "closer to being a

splri-tual medl.um than hets been ¡ret, and he doesnrt even know it"(p'622).

Slothrop cannot know what he ls: the surrender of hls consclous self,

the ratlonal I that fs an aspect of the noumenon, precludes self,

awareness. But 1n lts place is an Orpheus-Iike pantheistic awareness.

Although he ls not conscious of it, the focus of Slothroprs interp-

retatfve eye has shifted awey from the Bocket and toward what Enzian

calls the I'ReaÌ Textt', the nature-text.

St1lI he ls perturbed by the mystery of Lazlo Jarnf , 'tthe coupling

of'Jamf'and 'f in the prlmaL dream"(p.623), but he no longer seeks a

solution 1n the obscurantlst texture of TheLr conspÍracy. fnstead he

percelves hLs entire envLronment as hleroglyphic, and consequently

Omens grow clearer, more specJ-fic. He watches

fllghts of blrds and patterns in the ashes of

hls fire, he reads the guts of trout hets

caught and cleaned, scraps of lost paperr graffl-ti

on the broken wa11s where facfng has been shot

away to reveaL the brlck underneath - broken ln

speciflc shapes that may also be read. !!3 (p,623),

The lntention that has determlned the "speclfic shapes't of these cryp-

tograms J.s amblguous: both the nunlnous and the noumenon', wouÌd appear

to have had an authorial - Provldentlal - hand ln the constructlon of

this ambivalent l-f ¡real-lstici text. The text þ a realistic representa-

tion becauEe these opposltfonal rlTordS0 stLl-I both partlcipate ln the

wrftlng of the world; no authorltatLve Text has yet been located which'

would make a clear distinctlon, between trrl two. But because Slothroprs

perceptf.on is now unconstrained, beoause he can now percefve the ReaI

Text 1n lts entirety, he 1s able at last to reallze hls potentfal as a

"spJ.nftual- medlumrr. sensl-tlzed by the Bocket'to mandallc shapes, he

begones attuned to oùher ,tfour-fold expressions',,

crossroads, where you can stt and listen in to

traffic from the Other Slde, hearing about the

future (no serlal time over there: events are

all there in the same eternal moment and so

certaln messages donrt always "make senseÍ back

here: they lack hlstorical structure, they

sound fanclful, or lnsane) [p.624).

Slothrop approximates thls atemporal or non-serial qua1l.ty, havj-ng

surrendered the consctous self that constructs hl-storical tfme. By

rellnqutshing as a goal the personal grace promised by Their pseudo-

figural scheme, the grace he has been conditioned to desJ-re, Slothrop

has access to an alternatlve scheme. It is ln terms of the rr0ther Sf-de",

a four-dlmensl-onal contlnuum perhaps analogous to the "Aether", that he

fínaIIy realLzes the ldentity that has until now been latentS "he

becomes a cross hl.mse1f, a crossroads, a livlng lntersection. (...)

Crosses, swastlkas, Zone-mandalas, how can they not speak to Slothrop?"

(p.625).

As the slgns of a holistl-c sensibllfty - they have already been

so deflned ln Herero terms - these four-fold tropes belong to the

discourse that now speaks through Slothrop, renderlng 'Ùhimt Ínarticulate.

But as he looks at the signs of preterlte iWaster thls dlscourse does

enable hlm to 1t all flt , seeing clearly in each an entry ín a

record, a hlstory; his own, h1s winterts, hÍs countryts..r instnctlng

hlm, dunce and drlfter, 1n ways a".p"r than he can explaln (...)"(p.626).

Exp1anatJ-on requtres a form of consci.ousness tnat Slothr.op cannot attaln,

a rhetorical dlstance that 1s impossfble now that he f.s spoken by a

numl,nous 'langue'. Prevlously he spoke the discourse of the noumenon, a

secular text that fnevitably frustrated hls quest for the numlnous. Yet

the persona of Hocketman held a potentlal slgnlficance which can only

now, refErrlng to a pantheistJ-c text, become apparent. As "Bocky"

Slothrop was llngulstlcally related to Fellpers rtsentLent rocktr; through

the punr lf he had known how to read 1t, Stothrop could have perceived

'ra form of minerel conscl-ousness not too much dlfferent from that ofplants and anlmarsn(p.6r2). As ft ls, he must become an aspect of the

numlnous, a'rsplrltual medLunn'r, before he is aware of rrEarth.s mindbody''.

(...) later lin the day he became a crossroad,

after a heavy rain he doesntt recall, Slothrop

6ees a very,'thlck ralnbow here, a stout rainbow

cock drl-ven down out of pubic clouds into,Earth,

wet green valleyed Earthr and hls chest fllls

and he stands crying, not a thing in hls head,

Just feellng natural (p.626J.

Slothroprs vision of the rainbow parabola coJoined wlth Earth lsan lsomorph of the Rocketts traJectory, the vÍsib1e half of a metaphorJ-c

mandala or cosmic serpent, a slgn of eternal return. It l-s an epiphanlc

vlsÍon achleved, perhaps, !.n a moment of ,,tmmaculate perceptlon'.15 But

Joseph Slade's rrdoctrine of l-mmaculate perceptlon'f does not provlde an

acourate descriptton of the nature of Slothroprs vj.slon. The nu¡lnous

Text that Slothrop wouLd passlvely perceive rather than proJect is not

self-evfdentry real-, lt is not unequivocally there to be percelved.

Thnor'rghout the narratl-ve the numlnous has been manifest Ín uncertalntJ.es,

fn the spacea of Thet¡ as yet lncomplete Text. Rather, Slothrop appears

to be granted a moment of "passlve discu""i,rlty", when the soúrce of

'rcrosses, swastlkas, Zone-mandalas,r Ls reveared thror,rgh hfm,16 ,n"rafnbow fo¡ns an nÜr-texti or 1angue in terms of whlch aII the sf.gns ofhollsm, of cycllcarity, are the manr,festations of parol-e. sy lts very

nature the dlsclosure of the ranque must form an eplphany, and ¡ret the

temporal revelatlon of the abstract source of Slothropts nunlnous Text

must have a phenomenaL basLs: Lt cannot but appear thrcugh hj-m.

However, the precise ontology of thÍs slgn 1s ultimately amblguous.

Later, srothrop encounters its counterpart, a parody of the rainbow

trope, withln the text of the nounenon. Like the Antlchrist, They have

a semiotlc response to every manJ-fBbation of the numinous. In the rufns

of a Zonal town Slothrop flnds

a scrap of newspaper headlfne, with a wirephoto

of a glant white cock, dangling 1n the sky

stralght downward out of a whtte pubic bush. The

letters¡IB DRO

ROSHT (p.693) .

Thls ibleachedr verslon of slothr€prs vlslon discÌoses death and

destructlon where fertillty was revealed through hlm. It is a cryptogran,

requfring actlve crosstextuaÌ interpretati-on before lt makes any meantrg;

es do all of the Bocketrs fÍgura1 slgns. And Like the Rocketn Slothrop

hlmself 1s now polwal.ent. rn hls epiphanlc moment¡ one among the

numl-nous signs, he becomes a cryptogram. The nature of hls vision is nob

ln questl'on but lts value fs. Elther the moment of death, transcendence

or herneneutfc lnsight (more accurately routsÍghtr or rexsightrJ, tne

telllng of hÍs vLston requfres that the Ínterpretatlve framework

empÌoyed fn the readÍng of ft, the cognitlve assu¡rnptlons that underlleany constructLon of it, be revealed.

This focus upon signtflcance rather ttran llteral meanlng, value

rather than charaoter, extends Lnto slothrop rs recolÌectLon of thequest. He no longer contemplates seeking the signs of his f-dentity butenvlsages a search for Enzlenrs ',Key that wflÌ lead us back, to our

Earth and our freedomn. The cognrtlve retreat of the langue reaves him

deslrlng the signs of ft, the traces of nuninous val-ue and slgnifJ.cance

within the lncreasing hegemony of the noumenonr

(...) 1n each of these streets¡ sorîE vestlge of

hurnanity, of Earth, has to remain. No matter what

has been done to 1t, no matter what itrs been

used for, (.,.) flnding 1t, learning to cherlsh

what was lost, mJ-ghtn't we find sone way back? {p.693),

The Rocket ltse1f was never a Grall; it has always been only the slgn f

his quest-obJect, polnting to but only partlalì-y embodyf-ng the ReaI

Text, It has posed as a posstbttity the deceptlve neture of Their

ideology - 'a corporate structure of lies', - but it ls only as the

mediun of a numinous langue that Stothrop can read its participatlon in,

oppositional texts, l-ts ambl-textuality. The image of the Hiroshima

Rocket 'rhas the same coherence, the hey-lookl,t-me smugness¡ as the

Gross does. It ls not only a sudden whÍte genltal onset ln the sky - 1t

J-s arso, perhaps, a Tree. ...,'[p.694). The iTree of Lifer or the nEross

of Deathn, Thelr archetype, the Rocket i= " !1gg that manifests both

the nwnLnous and the noumenon; it ls not the Text to leglslate between

the two, as Enzian and Stothrop wouLd have had it be.

In;the absence of a power to dlstÍngulsh transcendental sfgnlfiers,

two uncertsln acces¡ses to Truth remaln: active lnterpretation and

passlve revelation,

(...) passlng through the chamþers oRe by one ls

ter¡:ible and complex. You must have not only the

schoolLng 1n countersLgns and seals [...) br¡t also

a hardon of resolutlon that will never go limp on

/our (...) The other way fs dark and female,

passlve, seÌf-abandonlng. (...) tne glitterlng edge

widening to a hallway¡ down, up which the soul

is borne by an imesl-stable Aether. [.,.) Th"

nuninous l-ight grows ahead (..,) fpp.749-5Oì.

Slothropr havlng abandoned hls paranol-d self to a passivel-y discursive

experience of the numfnous, appears to have been chosen for enlight-

enment; his 'rmonsters of the Aether" have borne hlm to an lntegratlve

vislon. But tf Slothroprs hermeneutlc i.mpotence results ln a hollstic

epiphany, Enzian and Tchltcherine - passed over by the Aether - must

rely upon a "front-bra1n fatth 1n Kute Korrespondences".

The rest of us, not chosen for enlightenment,

left on the outside of Earth (...) must go on

blundering lnsl"de our front-brain faith in Kute

Korrespondences, hoplng that for each psl,-

synthetlc taken from Earthrs soul there ls a

mo1ecule, secularr more or less ordJ-nary and named,

over here - kickLng endlessly among the plastlc

trivf.a, flndlng ln each a Deeper Stgnificance and

trying to strLng them all together like terrns ln a

power series hoplng to zero in on the tremendous

and secret Functlon whose name, llke the permuted

names of God, cannot be spoken (...J but to brÍng

them together, ln thelr sllck perststence and our

preterltf.on . r. to make ="n=" out of, to find the

meanest sharp sllver of truth ín so much repllcatlon,

so nuch Ìvaste. r.. (p.S90).

Ïhey are caught fn the dilemma of attemptlng to discover a figural patt-

Erñ¡ thror.rgh a flgural herrneneutLc, without the cognftLve guidance of an

authorltative pretext. Enzlan, partlcularly, must reì-y upon his reading

of "countersf.gns and seal-s", hoplng to discover the "tremendous and

secret Function", if he is to effect a return to rthe Eternal Center of

Earthts mindbodyr,

Slothrop can provl-de no assistance: h1s sel-f-less experience

cannot be artlculated, not even to himself. He can only hope for a

manifestatlon of the traces of the Numtnous; he cannot however act. The

sÍgns of his destlny, read f¡^om a Tarot-text, are ',the cards of a

tanker and feeb; they polnt only to e ]-ong and scufflj.ng future, to

mediocrlty (,..) to no clear happlness or redeeming cataclysm"[p.?38'ì.

Eì.rt wlthin the context of the Zone, where all- taxonomies are either

amblguous or offlclelly defined, concepts like ,rclear happiness" and

'rredeeming cataclysmn are virtually meaningLess. This ls Enzianrs

dlfflculty: his success or fallure depends uponi his capaclty to disting-

ulsh val-ue from waste, the nuninous from the noumenon. Even B1Ícero

recognises the obstacle to hfs 'rdelfberate transcendence'¡ ! 'rThere are

ways for':getting back, but so complicated, so at the mercy of language,t

(p.723) - at the mercy of the secularized language of the noumenon that

he would escape. simllarly, Enzlan must confront the cognitLve barrier

arected by a corrupted language; he must hope that there exlst signs,

"more or Ìess ordinary and naned'r, whl-ch clearly manLfest a ,'Deeper

Slgnfflcancer'. But, like Oedipa, he faces the indeterminate nature of

semantic presence: that whlch frustrates and maddens Brlcero,

The single basls for a dlstinctlon between the numlnous and the

noumenon artÍculated by the narrative f-s ì,magJ.ct. In the absence of a

valorLzed pretext, in a wo¡:Id doml-nated by Thetr henneneuttc routiniza-

tlonr thls is the "lrratlonal'r force that would undenlie a ffgural

manifestatlon of the Nr¡ninous: nstrj,ngfng slgns aIJ. together¡ lnto a

flgural pattern that stands dlstlnct from the 'rplastlc trLvia" of the

noumenon. The secul-arLzed names of the nounenon are devoid of any

magicaL capablLity: "That's the key, thatrs the difference. Spoken

aLoudr even wlth the purest meglcal intentlon, they do not work"(p.4641.

As aspects of a pseudo-figural consplracy these signs isolate; they

induce paranoia as the method by which the lndividual ls located within

the plot; they reveal only a quasi-demonic Absence beyond the secular

"connectedness" of the consplracy. But they do approximate fÍguralism.

Enzian Ís decelved by the pattern; dÍsregarding the absence of "magic"

he pursues 'rthe sinlster cryptography of namingrr, lnf-tlaIly, fn a

sterlle quest that could never disclose an lneffable Presence. In.

contrast, operational magf-c, the nOperational word'r(p.510)¡ is grounded

in the assumption of semantic presence. Oedipa, in her encounter with a

derelict sail-or, discovered "the high magfc to low puns'r, the magical

capacity of puns to draw realms of beÍng into a significant continuityn

SimLlarly¡ the images confronting Brigadier Pudding as he makes his way

through a succession of antecham.bers to hÍs rendevous wj.th the Mistress

of the Night [a-re not malignant puns against an intended sufferer so much

as a sympathetio magic, a repeti-tlon hÍgh and 1ow of some prevaì-Iing

forril'f(p.232). The lncident may be of uncertain reltabilÍty but the

narrator's synpathetic commentary suggests that thls figural form may

províde access to a discourse of the Same. fn fact the unique property

of magj.c appears to reside in this promised access to a numinous

transcendental signlfler - a prevaillng quasi-P1atonfc Form - through

the revelation of a signfficantly unifled semiotlc pattern. In these

te¡rns magic becomes the semantlc equlvalent of the 'rsoniferous Aether,r,

the nedLun that "mlght brlng us back a continulty, show us a kinder

unfverse, more eas¡going"(p.?26). The .arbltrary nature of secular

signlficatfon, the lndeterrninecy of secular semantÍcs, would therefore

be overcorne by the ma¡jfcal conJurlng of a numlnous pnesence, ,'with

pencf-l words on your page'only[t rrom the thtngs they stand for,'(p,sI0).

The occult magJ-c of GelL Trlpplng, the ,,tttorld-choosl-ng wÍtch,,,

evokes such a presence: her search for Tchftcherlne ls guided by "the

logic of mandalas" - a prevallf.ng cyclical form - 1t is inforrned by her

communication with Metatron, the Kabballstlc splrit governlng the

vlsíble, and l-t cul-minates ln a Pan-thelstic vlsfon of Earthrs Ìiving

"mlndbodyr'. Most lmportantly though, it is motivated by love. MagÍcal

technique "ls Just a substitute for when you get older"(p.?L8). The

unifying, quasl-flgural power of love transforms Tchitcherlnets hatred

for his half-brother. Blinded by Gellts 1ove, he fails to recognise

Enzian and so these morteL enemles come together as frlendly strangers:

"This ls maglc. Sure - but not necessarlly fantasy"(p.?35J. The

transformatlve, concíliatory power of love ls analogous to the synthe-

slzlng functLon of Gravity, gathering¡ transmutlngr reallgnlng and

reweavfng slgns into a Real Text. Through his love for Jessica Roger

Mexico discovers thls as an alternative to his statistlcal reality: rrln

a llfe he has cursed, agaln and again, for its need to believe so much'

in the trans-observable, here l-s the first, the very ffrst real maglc:

data he canrt argue awayrr(p.38). So when he loses her, he loses also

thls lntegrative, hollstLc apprehenslon, "a fuI1 range of life, of

befng for the flrst tl-me at ease Ín the Greatlon"(p.629).

There are only Llmited possibl,llties for love in a worÌd dominated

by Them. Jesslca ls seduced, away from Roger, by her conditioned need

for security. Only for the duration of the l{ar's "absolute rule of

chanceri can she suspend thls need. Slmllarly, the signs of thls integra-

tl-on exl-st in semlotic lnterregnuns, 1n pre-routinized spaces. So in

Lts charismatLc aspect, 1ts *slngularlty'1, the Rocket-text signifies

thls ffgural un1ty. The double integral¡ "the method of flnding hidden

centersrr, ls also the 'rshape of lovers curled asleep"(p.302). Love,

I1ke the mathenatlcaL lntegral, can signify and so partC-a}ly disclose a

numlnous reallty. Both, flguralLy fnterpreted, assume a slgnlficance

addLtlonal to the secular. Wtthln "the dynamlc space of the lLving

Rocket'r these methods of integration become signs of "an interface

between one order of things and anoüher"(p.3O2) - íf pursued as figurae

they dlscÌose "slngularlties" such as the Brennschluss Point.

(,..) there 1s a cosmology; of nodes and cusps

and points of osculation, mathematíca1 kisses .,.

singularlties! Consider cathedral spiras, holy

mlnarets, the crunch of tramwheels over the polnts

as you watch peeling away the track you dldnrt

take ¡ r r mouotein peaks rlsing sharply to heaven,

(...) the edges of steel razors, always holding

potent mystery ... rsse thorns that prick us by

surprlse . r r even, according to the Russian

mathematlcian Friedmann, the inffnltely dense point

from whlch the present Universe expandedr G.r in

each case¡ the change from point to no-point

carries a luminosity and enigma at whl-ch something

in us must Ìeap and sing, or withdraw in fright.

l{atchlng the A4 pointed l-n the sky - Just before

the last firing-swltch closes - watching that

stngulsr point at the very top of the Rocket,

where the fuze is. ro. Oo al-I these points tmply¡

I1ke the Bocket's, annlhilation? What 1s that,

detonating ln the sky above the cathedral? beneath

the edge of the razor, under in" "o="? [p.396).

Each of these sfgns is a fLgura¡ each possesses the magj-cal potential

to dlsclose an alternatlve order of belng, an alternatLve text. BUt

whllst they slgnlfy the existence of an alternative they designate

nelther lts nature nor cognttlve acoesses to tt - they contain no,cues

to thelr lnterpretatÍon beyond theLr shared functlon as figural inter-

faces manlfesting an extrecreatíonaI presence. Thefr 'rmaglc" resides in

the potentlal to make present'rthe road not takenr. And so this "magÍc"

informs both accesses to truth: the actlve and the passive, the revela-

tory and the l-nterpretative.

But thls magic ls also the prJ.mary object of Their routinlzatlon;

lt fs the semlotlc quality that They wlsh most to suppress through

Thelr lnsulatlve hermeneutic. The Rocket, wtthln Their rdeliberately

redeemed¡ culture-text, woul-d no longer dlsclose concepts lfke the

sonlfer-ous Aether and Earth's mindbody that put lnto questlon Theír

techniques of lsolation. They have achieved the secularizatlon of all-

rratlonaÌr cognltlve modes - Ianguege, sclence, fllm, psychol-ogyt

mathematics'- so there remain only the frratlonal¡ the "magical", to be

annexedi 'rDreams, psychic flashes, omens, cryptographles, drug-

eplstemologles"(p.593). f@ there woufd be no medlum to dÍsclose the

numinous. They have bureaucratized the phenomenal, psychological and

occult realms l-n the attempt to defeat entropy, despite the endless

nature of the confl-1ct, despite even the advice of Wa1ter Fathenau, one

of Theln own,

The real movement ls not from death to any

rebirth. ft is from death to death-transfigured.

The best you can do 1s to polymeríze a few dead

moLecules. But polymerlzation ls not resurrectlon:(P.166) .

The advice goes unheeded because "reblrth" is not what They want. It is

in fact what They flght. 'rln thl-s latest llar, death was no enemy, but a

colLaborator"(p.616). As Bllcero's name suggests, They struggle against

the "spontaneous resurrectlon¡ of Gravlty ln the desire to achieve a

nbleachedtr real-J-ty: dead and absol-ute1y controllable.

The allegorlc hero - Slothrop, Enzian, Tchitcherine - is com-

promlsed by the pervasive nature of Thelr methods of synthesis and

control. The text they must read from 1s corrupted, as are the hermeneut-

l-c modes they must employ and the context Ín which they move is peopled

by I'generation after generatl-on of men ln love with pain and passivlty

(,.. ) wlIIlng to have life defined for them by men whose only talent is

for death"(o.ZA?1. Slothrop and Enzian, Tchltcherine to a lesser extent,

are marked as herolc sLmply by thelr refusal to accept the hegemony of

the noumenon - whether thls refusal is'.conscious or not - and by their

sensitlvlty to maglcal traces of the numlnous.

The success of thelr varlous quests ts ambiguousr as is the nature

of the dÍspensation offered by the figural Rocket. As metaphor the

Rocket holds the promlse of other orders of beJ-ng, at the Brennschfuss

Point it discloses an atemporal absol-ute antonymous to the noLÍnenon.

Yet it ascends as'the product of TheÍr death-dealing technologyr the

prodigy of Thelr "deliberate resurrection'r of entropic Nhture. At

Brennschluss They must however surrpnder Their control-; at thts point

Gottfried perceives'ta Brocken-specter, someoners, somethingrs shadow"

(p.?59), 'rGod-shadows"(p.330). But no sooner has this "slng1e point"

appeared to hlm than he ls borne by the Rocket ln an uncontrollable

descent, lnfo the "Elllpse of Uncertainty" and death. The Rocket 1s

subJect to the destructlve and creatfve controL of Gravlty. Its traJec-

tory ls consunmated when 1ts vlsible panabola becomes a mandala, when

Gravlty has 'rhugged to lts holy center'r the Rocket-waste, ngatheredr,

packedr transmuted, reallgnedr and newoven moLecules to be taken up

again by the coaltar Kabbalfsts of the other sl-de'f(p.590). With a

prlmary text as a¡nbt-textual as thts lt should not be surprLsfng that

the allegorlc hero cannot achleve a clearly defLned success or fatlure.

But an awareness of the nature of the text and lts relatton to the Beal

Text could be cLassl-fled a success, For from thls discovery follows

that of self-deflnltlon, the recognltion of the dl-scourse that their

subJectivltles speak¡ and this has after all been a prlmary obJect of

the quest. So for Slothrop, Enzian and TchltcherLne the quest culminates

in the recognLtl-on of a felse logos, an Absence at the centgr of a

'rcompÌex" quasl-fi-gural structure.

Llke all" allegory the concluslon of Gravltyrs Rainbow is lnconclus-

ive and self-referential. The descent of the archetypal Rocket O0O0O

refers, crosstextuaì.Iy, to the narratl-vers beginning, expllcitly

fnvoklng an apocal¡çtic, salvatlonal context. As the Rocket is poised

at Brennschluss above the Orpheus Theatre, "absolutely and forevert,

(p. ?60),

Each has been hearÍng a voice, one he thought was

talklng only to hlm, sayr "You dl"dnrt reaIly

believe yourd be saved. ComE, we all know who we

are by now. No one was ever going to take the

trouble to save g, old fe1low. ...',

There is no way out. LLe and walt, Lie still and

be qr.ilet. Screaming holds across the sky. When

Ít comes, wiLl tt come in dar{<ness¡ or will it

brlng Lts own llght? WllL the J"lght come before

or afterZ (p.4).

The tradÍtfonal lmage slgnlfying Christlan salvation - light opposed to.

satanic dar*ness - suggests here an uLtimlt" opoo=ltlon between. the

nunlnous and the noi¡menon. But it also ral-ses the questfon; gha.g wiuoome? The numinousr sfgnifled by the Rocket, offers the dual possibll-

l-ties of either tnanscendence lnto another order of being or death; the

nounenon brlngs only the certitude of death. Thls unsolved probJ-em, the

proble'm that the heroes fatled to solve - a deflnltive dLstLnctlon

between the numlnous and the noumenon - forces the reader lnto a

positlon of herrneneutíc self-conscLousness. The heroesr fal1ure, the

failure of g[ postmodernlst allegorlc hero/lnes, to complete the quest

requlres that readers choose between opposlng texts by locating thelr

own leglslattve Textsi pretexts. Consequently, this Ís to question the

extent of thelr ry¡ fnterpretative control by 'fThe Man"; 'Nbw everybody-r'

CHAPTER FN/E

GTNCLIJSION: CONSTRUCTIONS AND CRYPT0MOBPHS

The allegoric structure of Gravltyrs Bainbow is not easl1 v

dlscernible. Beadfng Gravltyrs Bainbow is a complex, complicated and

oftèn confusing experÍenoe. It "Ls not a disentanglement from, but a

Lpr'ogressfve knotttng fnto" [p.g) an interlaced texture of quests.

Beoause we are deprlved the cognltive focus of a sing3.e quest or story-

lfne the logic of the narrativers construciton is somewhat obscured. In

contrast to the allegories dl-scussed earlier, several quests make up

the pLot of GravLty's Bainbow which¡ BS B unit, does correspond to the

generic structure of alLegorlr

In the first sectíon, 'fBeyond the Zero", the rrfallenn condition

of the Zone is establlshed, prlmarily fn terms of Slothrop's manip-

ulation by Them. Hls ambívalent desire for grace - his fear of snd need

for a centering Word - fÍnds a paralle1 in the lnterpolated story of

celÌ Ilfe. In this parable of the FaII, of spirltual alienation, the

Central Nervous System correponds to a "core of belngt', a present

]og06,, to which there is no return. The young ce1t, as part of hls brief

on the facts of postlapsarlan life, ts lnformed ttiat "Vte glf go up to

the Outer l-eveL¡ toußg hâlrr Some immedtateJ-y, others not for a while.

But sooner or later everyone out here has to go Epiderrnal. No exceptiond'

(p,IAB). Going "Epfderrnal" means a change "to horn, and no feeling, and

silencert(p,ì.481. His expectatlon of a numinous return dlsillusioned, the

young ceII stLlL reslsts thls destiny: "i"'"" in exlle, we do have a

home! (...) Back there! Not up at the lnterface. Back in the CNS:,,

[p.I B):']Thl.s comLc parable encapsulates the major quest theme of

GraYltvrs Rainbow. All the heroes are seeklng 'rthe key that witl bring

us back, restore us to our Earth and to our freedomr'(p.525J - a restora-

tion to the transcendental CNS - but they are opposed by the forces of

the noumenon which manipulate their destfnies in the direction of the

Epldermal. Sl-othrop is the most obviously manipulated of the heroes.

His experÍence of the F1¡m's determinism lntroduces the concept ofcognÍtl-ve lnsulatlon as'rsubsequent sin". But opposed to it is hlspeculiar response to the uncertainty represented by the Rocket. Con-

sequently, from this there emerges a dilemma: 'rwhat is the real nature

of synthesls? And then; what ls the real nature of contror?,,(p.16?).ItUn Pertn tau ù-sino Herman Goerlng" begi-ns the movement towards

sorution of thls problem by developing the herors - slothroprs - abilityto lnterpret. rn the casino, cornpletely the subJect of the Firm,

Slothrop is prtvy to alL Rocket inforrnation. Hl.s circumstances, as much

as hls dlscoveries about the condltions of the Rocket's productÍon,

nurture his already bì.ossomfng paranofa to the extent that he begins toread aLl- signs as figurae¡ pointÍng to the existence of a hidden order:

'rScales and cLaws, and footfalls no one else seems to hear"{p.242ì.

rt 1s not until section three, when he Ís "rn the Zone", thatsrothrop realizes that he has been sord to the cartels, "sord to rG

Farben like a slde of beef,,(p.2g6). Subsequently he adopts the persona

of Rocketman as he attempts to discover hls own identity in the Rocket-

text and its Schw""=n""åt. During this stage of the quest he encounters

Franz pJtfer and learns from him, through the story of Kekule,s Serpent,

the hermeneutic peculdar to the noumenon. An awareness of the extent ofTheir secuÌarizatlon, of Their lnsulatlve control and false synthesis -the ildellberate resurrectfon't of nature - ls sufficient to push SlothropÍnto antl-paranoia. The reaLizatíon tnat tne cartel-¡ r,the Beast,,, isreaÌ rathen than proJected prompts srothrop to opt out finalry from

Their conspiracy, ln acknowledgement of his PreterLtion. Sfmilarly,Tchftcherine discovers that he has been an unwitting agent of a real,gLobal Rocket-state and that'reveryone else seems to be in on it. (...)All except for himself and EnzÍañ"[p.566). However, Enzlan too has been

duped by Their false appearances, his quest mlsdirected, away from the

'rReal Texttr of "Earthrs mindbodyr'. The discovery that they have been

deceived end used by Them is, for the postmodernist hero, the moment of

self-reaLization.

Lyle Bland's mystical vision of the Earth as a "living critter'r is

the first of a serles of syncretically based images thet characterize

the finaÌ section of the narratlve, 'rThe Gounterforce". The derivations

of .i-mages

used throughout to distlnguish the nurminous from the noumenon

are dÍsclosed 1n the manner of archetypes. As in The Faerie Queenen

where the Beast, the "damned feendr', is revealed to be the archetype of

al-I Redcrossers enemles, so Slothroprs vision of the rainbow parabola

coJoined wlth Earth is the archetype or langue of all the narrativers

mandalio signs. fn turn¡ the pantheistic context within which these

signs are located ls revealed through the occult magic of GeIi Tripping"

Like B1and, she discovers that whlch Their machinations are desígned to

suppress but which is defined by the Rocket-as-Revealer. Their machina-

tlons are most furly discl-osed by the lrfurpolated biography of Byron

the immortal Bu1b. Byron's story Ís a.parabl-e of TheÍr power, setting

out fobjectively't the cartel. conspÍracy that the heroes can onry

apprehend j.nductively. These "localfzedr archetypes are drawn together

into a kind of Llr-text by the Rocket 00000 and its ritual fLight.

The pre-l-aunÞh countdown offers a flgural context Ín whÍch the

Rocket is analogous to the archetypal rree of Llfe, drawing signs

together in a pattern of mutual rather than confllcting signi-fication,

according to the Kabbalistlc lnterpretatlbn of steve Ederman.

At the Greatlon (,..) God sent out a pulse of

Bnergy lnto the void. It presently branched and

sorted lnto ten dlstlnct spheres or aspects,

correspondlng to the numbers I-10. These are

known as the Sephiroth. To return to God, the

soul must negotiate each of the Sephiroth, from

ten back to one. (...) Now the Sephiroth faI1

into a pattern, which is called the Tree of Llfe.

It is also the body of God, Drawn among the ten

spheres are 22 paths. Each path comesponds to

a Ìetter of the Hebrew alphabet, also to one of

the cards called iMajor Arcanai in the Tarot. So

although the Rocket countdown appears to be

serial, i-t actually conceals the Tree of Life

which must be apprehended all at once, together,

in paralle1 (p.?53)r

The Tree "itself is a unlty", but whether the Rocket achÍeves the retum

to such a figural unity at the mystical Brennschluss PoÍnt is ambiguous.

The figurar potential- of the Bocket as metaphor Ís balanced by the

context in which it 1s fired. Gottfried is decked in "Deathlacerr, 'rthe

boy's bridar costume'r; he Ls gagged with a white kÍd gIove, ,'the female

equivalent of the Hand of Glory'r(p.?s0); wrapped in an rmporex shroud

he is placed in the "Oven" prepared by BII_cero. This "dellberatetranscendence'r is a r1tual annihilation; Gottfried is to be sacrifíced

upon the aLtar of Blicerors overvaulting pride. So although the Rocket

ascends on "a promise, a prophesy, of Escape", it will be 'rbetrayed to

Gravity'r (p. ?SB) .

A conventlonar allegory would, rt tnt" point, typorogicarly invoke

its pretext, both to suggest the sacred and to endorse the narrative.s

dlsclosure of lt. QfaVlty,s.Ralnbow s tmpì-y ends. Its conclusion issimilar to that of The Gonfldence-Man: both leave unreconciled confl-ic-

tÍng significations of their maJor tropes. The Gosmopolitan remains bot*r

the AntlcfirLst and an angel, the Rocket contalns the potential for

both transcendence and annlhilatfon. These conclusions are open-ended

in the manner characterlstl-c of allegory but they are not preceded by

a partial- revelation of the numlnous, lnstead they include ambiguous

revelatlons of opposlng archetypES¡ One of the reasons for Gravityts

Rainbqvyrs final ambigulty is the fact that the syncretic construction

of these rsacredr archetypes takes place ln a space externaL to the

herors quest. Minor characters'contrlbute to the syncretic process which

is then explicated by the narrator. Gonsequently we are deprived of a

slggIe l1ne of development performed by a surrogate-reader. The

rhetorical distance between the reader and the narrative quest is there-

fore widened, transferring much of the burden of making a final judge-

ment on to the readern

It is however the absence of a clearly defined relationship

between the namative and a sacred pretext that accounts in large part

for the modified role of the reader 1n postmodernist aÌIegory. The plots

of Y, The Grvinq of Lot 49 and Gravityrs Rainbow are foreshortened

because they do not invoke a pretext to conclude the narrativers

signification. The GonfÍdence-Man differs in this regard because it is

able to lnvoke a pretext - the BlbLe and the Apocrypha - although the

pretextual relatlonshÍp is highly qualifled. Conventional allegory, as

we saw in the first chapter, obliges the reader to make some response

to the sacred, a response that is guided by the narratlve's interpreta-

tion of lts pretext. The reader thus (fAeally) responds to the invislble,

sacred power that informs an entlre semiotic system - the aIlegory, an

anterlor sacred text and, by extenslon, a nature-text. The narrative is

desLgned to reawaken an awareness of a sacred language or, rather, the

sacred dimenslon of gf] slgns.

There is no dlfference between the vLsible marks

that God has stamped upon the surface of the

earth, so that we may know its inner secrets,

and the leglble words that the Scrlptures, or

the sages of Antiquity, have set down in the

books preserved for us by traditlon. The relation

to these texts is of the same nature as the

relation to things: in both cases there are signs

to be dlscovered and then, little by tittle¡ made

to speak! r.. The process is everywhere the sarne;

that of the sign and lts likeness¡ and this is

why nature and the word can íntertwine with one

another to lnfinity, formlng, for those who can

read it, one vast single text. 2

The conventional allegoric hero and, presumabry, the reader learn to

identify and to read this I'vast singLe text" by rediscovering the

signifÍcance of a pretextual hermeneutic,

Allegory is not only the interpretation of an anterior text; Ítis also about the problem of interpretation, of making present to

knowledge the alIos or alLegoria of the worldts vj-síbil-1a. ft is about

the construction of cryptomorphs. $/here in a conventional allegory thisconstructfon is presented more as a process of discovery, the alienation

of pretext from postmodernist narrative requires that the activj-ty ofconstructj-ng meaning be confronted. As a genre, allegory calLs intoquestlon the logic of lts construction - the systematlc pursuit of a

transcendental signf.fier that underll-es ine entire narrative and isdlsclosed in the crisis of its p1ot. rt is this þgg that centers the

narratl-vers metaphors, 1t is the unseen tenor of Lts tropes. But when

no such dl-sclosure occurs 1t ls the reader who must con€truct a dis= i

course of the Same, a commentary that will limlt the otherwise infiniteplay of narratological slgniflcetlon. As f explained 1n chapter one,

the shift in narrative focus from the lrrlord to a false logos effectively

destroys the narrative's potentLal to fncl-ude a figural disclosure or

epiphany. When it 1s the nature of the spiritus Ínfernus to encourage

the free pl-ay of sl-gnlfication and to oppose coherent epistemotogical

principl-es then the false logos cannot be Ínvoked to conclude the

narrativers own slgnification. That 1s, unless the reader chooses to

center the narratlve's meanfng by identlfÊng the satanic as that aspect

of the sacred which lnforrns it. Consequently, the response elicited

from the. reader remalns constant despite the historical modifícatj-on of

the allegorlc plot: stll1 the reader 1s engaged in the quest for a

transcendental signffJ.er. Postmodernist allegory, because its conclusion

is modlfled, simply requires that the reader make a serf-conscj-ous

cholce between transcendental signifiers.

The thematic structure, generic prínciple of construction, meta-

physica} orientation ... that whLch is proJected sequentialLy by the

plot and to whlch the reader must respond, remains essentially unchanged

throughout allegory's hlstory. As hlstorical institutions literarygenres are peculiarly akln to the Saussurian model of 1anguage. The

dlachronLc stnucture, the systematic aspect of the genre, could be

termed the generic 1angue, whilst the lndividual, evol-utlonary aspect -the synchronlcelly based texts - are the manlfestations of pgæ. The

genre as a whol-et perhaps because it 1s nothlng but ai,unique language

usage, approximates the nature of language,

Language ls at the same time an lnstitution and

contlnually evolving. !-angue and pg¡gþ are

lnterdependent, each supposing the other,

instrument and product of the other at the same

tlme. 3

So Pynchon's narratlves are both the products of and a part of the

allegorlc genre, as the latest in an "evolutlonerf sequence of aLLeg-

oric texts. But whilst they are al-legorlc Ln structure, the structure

of the aLlegorla requlres that the reader declde whether 1t is an

imposed or providentlal meaning, a constructLon or a cryptomorph.

Ghapter 1

L. SeeRobertScho1es'@.NewYrk:l96?i'.Fabu1atÍon,

and Eplc Visl-on"; John O.Stark,

Durham zl9?l; "John Barth'r.

The Literature of Exhaustion.

2. Peter Szondi, New Literarv Historyr 10. (fSZe), p.18.

3r The Search for St. Truth; A Studv of Meaninq

Evanston:1973. pr4o

4. Maureen Quilligan, The Lanquacre of All-eqory: Defi-ninq the Genre.

Ithaca:1979. p.100. Note: The Bible is not the only text

avatlable as a pretext. The u¡orks of Homerr Virgil and Danteç

in addition to popular myths and legends are central to the

Western allegoric tradltlon, as they establlsh the authority

of the literary lmagination to render the "sacred".

5¡ The following discusslon of Augustlne's conception of language

draws upon Mary Carruthersr 81,!,, pÞ.10-16; and Robert E.

Meagher, An Introduction to Augustlne. New York:19?8.

6. Pl-eto descrlbes a slrnÍIar kind of communicatl-on in Phaedrus,

Harmondsworth:1981, which is "written on the soul of the hearer

together with understanding . r. the livfng and animate speech

of a man with knowledge", It 1s thùs form of logos which is

conveyed 1n speech, which "namest' the allegoric "other* - Ideal

Truth - and of whLch written speech 1s the shadow. (p.98),

Mlchel Foucaultts The Order of Thlncrs , London zL97?, designates

a similar, though ternary, organisatLon of the slgn as

characteristlc of Renaissance linguistics: 'rat that time, the

theory of the sign implfed three quLte dÍstinct eLements':. that

Mary Gamuthers,

1n, Piers Plowman,

h,hlch was marked, that which did the marking, and that which

made l-t possible to see in the first the mark of the second;

and this last element was, of course, resemblance"[p.64). But

cast 1n the terrninology of Augustlne, this idea of resemblance

becomes a metaphysical one: the signlficator, manifest in the

ternporal form of resemblance, ls the [/ord. And it is the "inner

wordrr which rnakes it posslbLe to percelve a signlfylng reLa-

tÍonshlp between the "markil and the ilmarker", because it is

l-nformed by the Word: the source of al-l resemblance. As we

shall- see later, this notion of seeing "in the first the mark

of the second'r forms the basls of a figural hermeneutfct

appLlcable not on1-y to language but to historical signs also.

See Peter Szondir g.U,!!,., Joseph A.Mazzeo¡ "Allegorica1

Interpretatl-on and Htrstory", @, 30. 1.

fWlnterrlg?8)., Peter Berekr "Interpretation, Allegory and

A1legoresis ", Gollege English 40. [rsze).l

Thls l-s an instance of the practice with which Oscar Wilde

cherged Wordsworth: finding in stones the se¡îrnon he had

already put there.

Gay Clifford,

The Transform lons of AI London tI9?4,

10. Suoted by ArG.Mltchell¡ "Lady Meed and the Art of P@ Ploum¡anir

Style and Svmbollsm ln Piers Plowman . Ed. Robert J.B1anch.

Knoxvllle:19?9. p.175.

Wtll1am Langland, The Visl-on of Pl.ers Plownan: A Gomplete

Editlon of the B-text. Ed. A.V,C.Schmidt. London:1978. l!.25.-?.

Note: Future quotatlons-are taken from thls edition end line

references yvlll- be given parenthetically in the text.

L2. Gay Clifford, 94!!,. p.9.

13. Northrop Frye, Anatomv of Griticism. Prlnceton:L95?. p.90,

14. Stephen A.Barney, Alleqories of History. Alleqorles of Love

HamdenzI9?9. p.46., cites the example of Thomas Aquinas, rrSumma

Totius Theologiae".

'tÊJ.iJT Angus Fletcher,

1965. p.22O-21.

Alleqory: The Theory of a Symbollc Mode. Ithaca:

16, Mary Carruthersr 9&9&. p.4.

17. Maureen Qullliganr E_€,!!. p.42.

18" Walter Benjamin, The Oriqin of the Gennan Tragíc Drama. Transn

John Osbourne. London zl9??, p.184.

19. Erich Auerbachr'rFlgura", Scenes from the Orama of Eurooean

LLterature Trans. Willard H.Trask. New York;1,959. p,49.

Note: tly use of the term "figuratr differs from that of Auerbach

in that I do not share his assumptlon that the figura must have

the status of a reaÌ, historLcal event. 0n the contrany¡ I

assume that hlstorical events can functlon as figurae because

they share the semlotic status of flgural signs.

20. Isabe1 HacGafferey, Spenserrs A1]egory: The Anatomv of

Imaginetion. PrLnceton;19?6. pp,26-30.

2L. Wolfgang Iser, "IndetermLnacy and the Readerrs Response l-n Prose

Fictloni¡ Aspects of NarratLve. Ed. J.HllLis Mil1er. New York:

I9?1. p.12.

22. Jonathon Gul1er, StructuralLst Poetics. London:1975. p.224.

23. Thls 1s also the case with DonaLd Barthelmers Snow White , New

York:19?71 a contemporary, interpretativer reenactment of the

falrytale. As Snow tllhite proceeds it reveals its consuming

Goncern with the conditlons of Íts own existencer and mocks any

attempt, on the part of the reader, to discover external or

referential signiflcance, whether ln the orlginal fairytale or

in reallty. The questÍonaire that ls inserted at the end of the

first part parodles the readerrs effort to determlne the moral

and fictional etatus of lts various charactersr in terms of the

mythr or rrpre-text'rr by expllcltly stating them: thus maki-ng tl'e

somewhat laborLous pof-nt that the readerrs perceptionsr and

hence lnterpr"etations, have been deterrnined by previous 1-iterary

conventions. The idea of seeking an alternative reality to the

closed system of Snow White is mocked as all forms of poss-

ibility are revealed to be aspects of the alL-pervasive "trash

phenomenon n.

24. Maureen Suilliganr 9p_€.!!,. p¡145

25. Julla Kristevar "Postmodernism?'r, Bucknelï Revfew: RomantÍcism f

Postnodernism XXV. 2, Ed. Harry R.Garvin,

Lewisburg:J-980. p,137.

26. From the tttle of hl-s essay "The Novel and the Experi-ence of

Limits", . Ed. Raymond

Federrnan. Ghlcago ..I9?5.

2?. JuLia Kristevar gpr$!. po137¡

E.D.Hl-rsch, "Oerridars Axiomsnr London RevÍew of Books ,. July 21,

1983. p.L?, Hirsch clalms that language does not precede ideas

but that trobJect concepts" preexist the na¡nes that they are

gJ.ven, cltlng as his authorlty Language Acqulsltion, Ed. Eric

28. J/t,,

-roCJ'

Wanner and L1Ia Gl-eítman.

See, for lnstance, JÞrome Kllnkowitz, "New Amerlcan Fiction and

Valuestr, Anql erican Studies , If.2. (NovemberrÌ982) 1 P.243,ç

and Gharles Bussell, t'The context of the GoncêPt"r Bucknell

Edward Mendelsonr "Introductlonr" zT ent th Cent

Views.Ed.EdwardA.Mendelson.EnglewoodGliffs:19?8.pon13-14.

3I, JuLla Krlsteva¡ 9¡.g4!.. p'141.

32, l-bid. p.140 o

33" Dante Allghierit La Divina Commedia. Ed. and annotated by G'H'

Grandgent, revised Gharles S.Slngleton. cambridgerMass .zlg72.

"Paradlsor', Ganto XXXIII. 11.139-45.

Thither my own wings could not carrY mer

But that a flash my understanding clovet

Whence its deslre came to it suddenly'

High phantasy lost power and here broke off;

Yet, as a wheel moves smoothly, free of jarst

My wilL and my deslre were turned by lovet

The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.

Trans. Dorothy L.Sayers and Barbara Reynolds' l-962; reprintt

Harmondsworth :1969.

The sequence of the events of the Apocalypse ls drawn from'

R.W.B.Lewlst Tri l-s e Word. New Haven:I965. P.75r

35. Quoted by Jerome Kllnkowitz, ffl!. p'243' ! ''

36. steven welsenburger, "The End of Hlstory? Thomas Pynchon and

the Uses of the Past"¡

Twentieth Genturv Llterature. 25, (rszs).

3?. $!!!. p.63.

38. Thomas Pynchon¡ "Entropy", Kenyon Beview1 22. (springr1960).

p.2?8. Note; Future quotations are taken from thj-s publlcation'

and page references will be given parenthetlcally in the text.

39. See ErwLn N.Hfebert, r'The Uses and Abuses of Thermodynamics inr

ReligionltrDaedalus, (fattr1966). pp.1046-80rr whlch' collects a

number of responses to the problematlc relationship between

science and rellgion, from theologians, philosophers and

scientists.

40. Ulg. Quoted p.1055-56.

4Lì, The Educatl_on of Henry Adams. New York;l_931. ppì.382r383.

Chapter 2

1. Thomas Pynchon, V. 1963; reprÌntr London'.1978. p.10. Note:

Future quotatlons are taken from this editÍon and page

references will be given parenthetically ín the text¡

2. Thomas H.Schaub, Pynchon: The Voice of tunbÍgulty. Llrbana ,

Cllicago and London:Ì981. pp.3-LB.

Wllll-am Plater, The Grlm Phoenl¿. Bloomi ton¡Ind¡ añd London:

1978. p¡xltJ..

4. David Bichter, Fablers End. ChicEgozLgT4. p,1û4.

ÊJa B.W.B.LewÍs, oÞ¡cit¡ p.228.

6. Richard Patteson, Critfque, 16. 2. (LSZA). p.31.

7. WlllÍam Plater¡ W.!!.. pp.l42-49, Thls aspect of V' appears

also fn Gravltvrs Rainbow 1n the character of Greta Erdmann'I

who neurotically conceíves of herself as "'.. the ShekhÍnäh¡

queenr daughter, bride and mother of God"(R,4?8).

8. Thomas Pynchont The Grvinq of Lot 49. 1966 ; reprint, New York;

19?8. p,M. Note: Future quotatl-ons are taken from this

edition and page references wil[; be given parenthetically in

the text.

oJa Mary Carruthersr 9¡¡9L!,. p.4,

100 Wll-l-iam Plater, g¡-cg!!. p.143.

lL. fþig. p.143.

T,2o Richard Pattesonr gg4,l!.. p.36r

13. William Plater, gp.rË. p.145.

Gravitvrs Balnbow. London;19?3. p.664. Note; Future quotati'ons

are taken from thls edltÍon and page references wÍI1 be glven,

parentheticallty fn the text.

15n Davld Rl-chter, .Wr!&. p.127.

16. Richard Patteson, W,1,!,. p.42.

Chapter 3

,1 Peter Abernathy, "Entropy l¡, Pynchon's @1"( rszz) . F.1.9.Grltíque t L4. 2.

2. Noted by Marreen Sullliganr ry,l!.¡ p¡€¡

3. Quoted by Edward llendelsont 'The Sacredt the Profane and The

Grrrlno of Lot 49'l l)419@. Ed. Mendelson. Englewood Cliffs:

19?8. p.122.

It is as l-f Bedcrosse were to slay hls dragon - the "damned

feend" - only to discover in lt a Trlffid-Iike qualityr whereby

each of its severed Ilmbs would take on a Llfe of its own,and

so rise in unison agalst him, to continue the battle qd

inflnltun.

JtJarosLav ó"rnl, Journal of Egüptian Archeologv¡ li4. (fs+e),

p.121. Note; Thls dfscusslon of Thoth draws uoon d"tnl, !$þ.,andJacquesDerridal@.London:].981.pp.86-92.It is fnterestlng to note that, in !, the spy Bongo-Shaftsbury

makes hfs inltial appearance in the guÍse of Horus. See !r p.?4c

6. Jacques Derrlda¡ ![þ. p,86.

?n I do not wish to suggest that Mr Thoth is in Bny way a

t'dramatisatlon" of the Egyptian god. He represents an oLd man¡

but one who bears a typologlcally signíficant name; who intro-

duces to the narrativers field of signlfication all of the

nuances and assoclatLons which attach to Thoth and the Eg¡ptianr

re1J-gious tradttlon. Thus, he extends the exegetical context

wlthln which the rest of the naruative l-s read - and casts the

preceding epísodes in a dlfferent light - by provÍdÍng a

pretextual antecedent, of whlch The Grvlng of Lot 49 can be

seen as an Ínterpretatlon¡ B Fe-Brlactment¡ Ín modern terms¡

8. Jacques Derrf.da, gpg!!,. p.92.

oJ' 1Þ!É' Pr87'

1O. i$þ!.; pr89.

11. GhrCÉopher Norrf s,

London:1982. Þ.3?.

Deconstructioni Theory and Practice.

12. Jacques Derrida, Ðg!!. p.93,

13. James Nohrnberg, "Pynchon's Paraclete", MendelsonfeU.), g&Ë"

P.149.

14. Also noted by Thomas Schaub, ggg,i!,. p'25.

1r5. Mlchel Foucault, The Order of Things. Londonz].g??, p.41ìn

16. ibld. pr49.

!?. George Steiner, 'rfntroduction'r, Walter BenJamin, 9.4!!. P,14n

Chapter 4

l_ In contrast to the preceding dlscusslons of V and The Grying of

þfÆr this chapter does not attempt a "totalised'r readfng of

the text. Given the complex exfollatlons of @tsome of which bear a tangentf.al relation to the argtument

presented her"e - that of the nature of the postmoderníst aIleg-

orl-c heno - my observations are in the most part restricted to

the characters of Slothrop, Enzl-an and Tchftcherine¡

2. Mar/ Garruthersr S.19l9r p.4.

3. Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Fleason. "The Ground of

DLstinction of aì-1. 0bJects ln General lnto Phenomena and

NoLmenat¡ The Euroo enn PhJInqnnher s ñoena¡{-ac toN 4 a#=- che

Ed. ftlonroe G.Beardsley. New York:1960. p.4I2.

4. Pynchonrs ellipses; henceforth mlne are glvsn in parenthesfs.

J. The relatlonship of Purltan theology to the allegoric genre

becomes apparent in this shared assumption of the vrorld-as-

metaphor. Allegory, llke Puritan "Nature", is a metaphoric

dlscourse constantly striving to become symbolic, to manifest

and make present to our knowledge a 'rtranscendental signÍfier".

6. That isr fiJ.m possesses a greater potentlal to portray ê so-

called "sll-ce of life" than does any other "art* mediumr a

potentfal parodl.cal-ly disct-osed by films like Andy Warhol rs

EnpLre (fSOa): an eight-hour camerars eye-view of the Empire

State Building. The static camera performs a perceptlve functiÇtr

simply recording "reality", so that its proJective role 1s

correspondingLy obscured. ThÍs project stands Ín sharp contrast

to a movle like Alfred Hitchcock's ReJr Window (fSsa) in,whÍch

the camera itself is perforrnative or, more accuratelyr homo-

loglcaI. It is actively involved ln "making" the narrativer in

a manner that parallels the audiencers own: involvement in the

construction of en lmplled mystery-meaning¡ and so can create

an "alLenatlng" effect that focuses on a seÌf-reflexive

awareness of the meaning-making facultys but turns upon the

aLternative functlon; that of engrosslng the audience further

in the mystery of meaning<nakingr

7. Tom Robbins, . New York:1.980r Þ¡86.

B. Richard Polrten, "Rocket Power'r, ilendelson (Ed.). op.cl-t. p.1?1"

c¡J' Mlche1 Foucault, 9g91!. p.49.

10. Jacques DerrJ.da¡ gptgl!.. Þ.8?.

11. ibld. D.183.

12. The "doctrine of immaculate perceptlon'r from Joseph Sladet

f'rRe1iglon, Psychology, Sex and Love in Gravityrs Rai-nbowl

AOproaches to Gravity's Rainbow. Ed. Charles Clerc. Golumbust

Ohio:1983.

John Barth,

pp.53-4.

p.183.

Giles Goat-Boy. 1966; reprint, London:L98Ì.

Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Sueene. Ed. A.G.Ham1lton. London

and New York;19??i corrected reprintrl9B0. I.ix.6.

Joseph Slader ggg!!. p.183.

"Passive discunsivity" coined by K.K.Ruthven, "The Gritic

Wlthout Suafitles". ([hpubllshed semlnar paperr1984)

Dhapter 5

1. f Ímagine the allegoric structure of @ as

analog ous to what The Faerie Sueene woul-d be if all of íts

various quests were to be íncluded 1n a singLe Book¡ forming a

kind of narratologlcal- pall-mpsest in which aLl the wríting ls

legÍble, additlonal quest-texts simply being superimposed upon

the orl-ginaI.

Mlchel Foucault, ry!!.. pp.33-4.

3. Davld Garroll, ïhe Sub.iect 1n Gluestlon: The Lanquages of Theory

d the ies of Fictio Ghicago and London:1982. Þ.141.a

ABERNATHY, Peter L.

ADAMS, Henry.

ALIGHIERI, Dante.

ALTER, Robert.

ARNHEII4, Rudolph.

AUEBBAGH, Erich.

BARNEY, Stephen A,

BARTH, John.

La Divlna Gommedia.

Charles S.SÍng1eton.Unl-verslty Press¡ 1972

Ed. C.H.Grandgent;

CambridgerMass. :

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Postmodernist allegory : the works of Thomas Pynchon

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